sparkplug wires

[Nails]

I replaced my sparkplug wires, using 5 feet ($6 worth) of metal-core wire material. I reused my NGK caps -- pretty sure they're stock.

You have to remove the coils because the wires screw onto the coil posts. (This is the right coil, bracket attached. And it's upside down.)

This entails removing the battery tray and the front air box. (Getting the boots back on the airbox is a major PITA.) You'll also need to remove the left side of the fairing.

Slip the coil wires off the top of the coils. I found the red wire to the rear (black wire to the front) on the right coil and the other way about for the left coil. Note that the coils are identical: you can reverse the right coil bracket (photo above) and flip it to the left side.

For both coils, remove the sparkplug wires from the rear posts by unscrewing the caps and pulling the wires off. (Mine came right off, but maybe your coil posts will grip the wires better than that. I guess then you'd have to unscrew them.) The front posts are too buried to unscrew their caps.

I think the right coil is most easily removed buy unbolting its bracket from the frame. Here are two views of the bolts to remove, looking along the inside of the right inner-fairing. I moved the fuel liquid/vapor separator aside, off it's bracket.

The right coil, bracket, and front sparkplug wire can be twisted out and off the bike.

[Nails]

The left side is more trouble because the junction box of the throttle accelerator cable assembly (for the cruise control) is in the way. I unbolted the coil from its bracket. I was able to access the top bolt from the front of the bike. Here's the lower bolt, after removing the fairing.

The frame is in the way, so that socket is a little off-center, but the 1/4" drive got close enough. It's also hidden behind another frame bracket that gets in the way of putting a box-end wrench on it -- might fit from the front of the bike.

Here's the coil (sans bracket) mostly extracted. The front post still has it's sparkplug wire attached (red arrow). The throttle junction box (green arrow) is pushed up and out of the way.

I cut the new wire with a big set of shears (that probably belonged to grandpa) to the same length as stock. Then I transferred the rubber ferrules and coil caps to the new wires.

Then reinstall the coils and everything else in the reverse of the above, except I attached the wires and caps to both the front and rear coil posts -- the new sparkplug wires are much more flexible. Again, the sparkplug wires must be screwed onto the coil posts. I attached the sparkplug caps (no ferrules) after getting the coils back in; and these caps also screw onto the core of the sparkplug wires.

[cranky]

You do good work and many thanks for the wire up and pics!!!!!

[Nails]

You do good work

Naw, I'm getting pretty crappy actually. Best keep my day job ... never mind I don't have one.

"There's never time to do it right but always time to do it over."