‘The spark plugs were shocking and completely rusted-up’
Workshop owner Jason McCullum found this Ténéré wasn’t so super
The owner of a 2011 Yamaha Super Ténéré dodged disaster when he took it into JDL Motorcycles in Nottingham complaining of an intermittent misfire, but declaring: “If you thrash it, it’s fine.” The bike was in good condition, and there was nothing wrong with it at tickover, but as the needle passed 3000rpm it began popping and running roughly. So workshop owner Jason McCullum went through his normal fault-finding routine, lifting the tank to see if the air filter was clear, and found his first issue; a mix of oil and water pooling in one corner.
Jason added: “There’s a drain that had got bunged up but what I wasn’t expecting was the state of the plugs, they were shocking, really rusted up. The top-end of the engine must be a water trap. A radiator normally gives that area some protection, but it’s offset on the Super Ten.” As well as the manky plugs, the stick coils were in a poor state. It’s a twinspark head, so there are four of them, bolted into place with two overlapping clips on each coil body. At £159 each, they aren’t cheap to replace.
“Those clips can get so corroded that you can’t get the coils out, but he was lucky as they hadn’t rotted too much and the coils were still intact. To make sure it isn’t a problem in the future, I cleaned them up and wrapped 3M aluminium tape around each one. To stop water seeping down into the plug recesses I fitted two O-rings to each cap and lubricated the top section with water-resistant Putoline racing grease.
“Once the machine was back together and some fresh fuel was in the tank the big Yamaha was purring again and it only cost him a few quid more than one coil would have,” Jason added.
‘He was lucky that they hadn’t rotted too much…’