Spark plugs were causing cold engine miss

[jclayto]

I finished the winter work on my 86 wing (except for the poorboy) and noticed I had a cold engine misfire. Re-checked every thing. I ran 1 and 1/2 tanks of gas through her with seafoam and still the cold engine miss.

I then turned to this site and searched and found a lot of answers and thanks go out to all! I read here to keep it simple and do the easiest first and I did. I replaced the plugs thinking this would not be the problem, they only had 6K miles on them. But new plugs stopped the cold engine misfire.

Posting pictures of the plugs for all to see

Jim

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[neoracer]

they all look good,maybe a little too lean but hard to tell from your pictures,if its only when it cold really sounds like needs the choke set a little when cold,your wires may be leaking some or the caps weren't on tight

either way,changing out the plugs is/was an easy enough fix

[Burnout]

Glad you had a quick, easy and inexpensive fix. From the looks of those plug pix, the engine appears to be running clean. Have another look after a couple of hundred miles to confirm. Remember that Sea-Foam has alcohol in it. That, ontop of ethonol gas, will give you a light reading on the plugs.

Now onto the poorboy :?:

[SIR tricky]

I can never get more than a year out of the NGK plugs, after that it starts missing on startup, change em out and it's fine.

[neoracer]

tricky,carbon buildup [-X [-X [-X [-X [-X [-X [-X

:-W :-W :-W

:YMPEACE: :YMPEACE:

\:d/ \:d/

~O) ~O) ~O)

[SIR tricky]

tricky,carbon buildup [-X [-X [-X [-X [-X [-X [-X

:-W :-W :-W

:YMPEACE: :YMPEACE:

\:d/ \:d/

~O) ~O) ~O)

Uh Uh this happened from the first year I had the bike... 1985.... Honda must have put all the left over carbon in my engine :lol: :lol: :lol:

I can get several years out of a set of AC plugs

[admin]

New spark plugs, because they offer little resistance, can mask other problems in the secondary ignition circuit such as leaking coils, bad spark plug wires and weak resistors so if you repeatedly have spark problems you may want to go through the test and inspection process outlined in the manual to determine if everything else in the ignition system is up to par. Even simply handling the spark plug wires may cause a corroded connection point to come alive again because the movement creates a working connection. On GL1200's, I have witnessed cracked coils leaking spark to ground and I have seen some spark plug wires, green from corrosion and the metal wire burnt away at the coil connection which really caused the engine to run poorly until warmed up and I have witnessed and repaired bad resistors in the spark plug cap which caused intermittent missing and the only way to check all these items is visually, at each connection point and with an ohm meter to determine the reistance value of each circuit. So yes, in most cases, new spark plugs will certainly make the bike run better, but, in many cases, it's kind of like putting on a new pair of socks to get rid of foot odor, unfortunately something is still smelly underneath the new socks and needs to be taken care of properly to make things right again. :d

[jclayto]

Well ADMIN you were right. I took my wing for a ride last night after work for 50 - 60 miles when I got back home you would have thought I was fogging mosquitoes. Oh NO I thought as my daughter (who is following in the diesel mechanic foot step) said "I have never seen exhaust like that!!" I chuckled some what and after the smoke cleared I said "I hope the oil looks like oil"! I went on to explain to her that the smoke was steam as I blew a head gasket.

I confirmed this by pulling the radiator cap and hearing a gurgling noise, also pulled the plugs and watching water shoot out #3 cylinder (the right back cylinder).
I also checked the oil and it looked alright, thank goodness

And just so all will know my cold engine miss came back, I suspect the cylinder was wet and foul when cold and when warmed up it worked OK.

Up side is I will be able to get to know my wings internal workings much better and if there is any one who can let me know what to look out for while replacing the gaskets, (only gaskets please), I'm open.

Jim

[Burnout]

That's a shame about the gaskets Jim. Best wishes in fixing her up! Still early in the riding season yet....

[jclayto]

Took the wing apart tonight and found the #3 piston and cylinder head steam cleaned. The leak was front edge of #3. I'll post pics tomorrow I can't re-size on this computer.

Later
Jim

[Granpah]

Jim,

This was the first time I looked at this posting and from the photos, especially 1331864570200 the INSIDE plugs treads have a brownish color that I thought was either rust or varnish. All of the other plugs seem less brown.

BTW Vic's points are ALL very well taken about several places in the electrical ignition system that can cause missing, and new plugs can compensate for a very short time.

Well, you already know the #3 cylinder is leaking water. I'm wondering, is the photo 1331864570200 of the plug from the #3 cylinder? Then the brown color may be inside rust and future cyclists can use this as a sign they have a water leak. So far as I recall, maybe sometimes the outer treads of very old plugs get rusty ... but usually not the inner treads.

Anyone out there agree?

Also, my broken record is to suggest (when everything else is working normally) using iridium spark plugs • • • works for me.

[jclayto]

Granpah
I believe you are right, when I pulled the plugs I started fron the front right side of the wing so that would be #3.

Here are some pics of the tear down and my man cave.