Not such a bright spark as plug gets stuck in upside-down
Mechanic Kev Hollingsworth fixes an issue caused by a bright spark owner
Abargain 1997 Kawasaki ZX-9R non-runner may have only cost £500, but its owner almost ended up shelling out an awful lot more after a spark plug mix-up. Changing the plugs when he got the bike home, one of them wouldn’t pick up the thread in the cylinder head, so he took it to Doncaster Motorcycles. Mechanic Kev Hollingsworth explained: “We checked the plugs but could feel the cap on cylinder no. 1
‘We thought it might be an engine-out job!’ wasn’t engaging. When we shone a light into the hole we could see the electrode and threaded end – he’d put the plug in upside down! “We thought it might be an engine-out job to turn it upside down, but in the end we modded the end of a slide hammer and forced it over the threaded end that was in view we could pull it out. It was like getting the grabber to latch onto the cuddly toy in an arcade machine. There was some resistance, but it came out in the end and we could see the problem. “The metal tip of the plug that clips onto the HT lead was bent, so it was like the barb on a fish hook inside the combustion chamber. Bizarrely, the cylinder head thread wasn’t damaged even though we had to drag the plug end over them on the way out. The plug’s porcelain insulation was also still in one piece, nothing had dropped onto the piston crown. We think he may have turned it over while working out what was going on and the piston bent the tip. “He wasn’t about to ‘fess up, but if customers tell us the whole story when they come in it’ll probably save them some money, as we’ll be able to come up with a solution quicker,” added Kev. In the end there was only an hour’s extra labour involved. But the cylinder head could have easily been damaged and that would have cost £300-£400... for a £500 bike.