Howdy!
I hesitate to bring this up because it’s sort of like an oil or chain lube thread, the debate about hard-tailing old bikes, one’s favourite choice of cable news network (ie. the bullish!t & lying network or the whale-kissing, treehugger, white-wine liberal whiners - but way more factual... network) or the politics of facemasks. These topics don’t always ....shall we just say that sometimes they don’t bring out the very best in people (including your faithful scribbler
).
Anyhow, I need to change the plugs in Lucille (‘76 Standard) and given the difficulties around shopping these days and my natural cheap-b@stardness, I wondered if I could simply clean the existing plugs - which actually still seem to function great after some minor difficulties getting the bike to start.
My auto shop teachers, Mr. Pete Davis, Mr. Dave Rankin and Mr. Ollie Kokinen back at good ‘ole Bayview Secondary School in the early ‘70s used to have spirited debates about the various spark plug cleaning methods:
I was surfing around YouTube the other day and noted another way to clean spark plugs from Alan Millyard who builds incredible multi-cylinder motorcycles like a V12 Kawasaki and 5-cylinder (!!
) Kawi two-stroke. His bikes are absolutely remarkable and they all run and look like factory machines in every way. If you have never seen his channel - check it out - mind blowing (see below).
Anyhow - Alan recommends simply burning the gunk off spark plugs with a MAP gas torch which is much hotter than propane. He just plops them into his BBQ and goes at them with a hand-held MAP torch.
This involves no abrasives or wire wheels which can leave debris behind as found by Briggs and Stratton in a recent service bulletin (and confidently predicted by Davis and Kokinen back in the day). I gather Mr. Millyard is not short of money and he sure has a lot to risk on his museum-piece machines by cleaning plugs rather than replacing them - but he says that he has always used this MAP gas technique and never had an issue.
So, what is the collective wisdom on the subject of spark plug cleaning?
Pete
I hesitate to bring this up because it’s sort of like an oil or chain lube thread, the debate about hard-tailing old bikes, one’s favourite choice of cable news network (ie. the bullish!t & lying network or the whale-kissing, treehugger, white-wine liberal whiners - but way more factual... network) or the politics of facemasks. These topics don’t always ....shall we just say that sometimes they don’t bring out the very best in people (including your faithful scribbler
).Anyhow, I need to change the plugs in Lucille (‘76 Standard) and given the difficulties around shopping these days and my natural cheap-b@stardness, I wondered if I could simply clean the existing plugs - which actually still seem to function great after some minor difficulties getting the bike to start.
My auto shop teachers, Mr. Pete Davis, Mr. Dave Rankin and Mr. Ollie Kokinen back at good ‘ole Bayview Secondary School in the early ‘70s used to have spirited debates about the various spark plug cleaning methods:
- Abrasive “sand blasting”
- Wire brushing
I was surfing around YouTube the other day and noted another way to clean spark plugs from Alan Millyard who builds incredible multi-cylinder motorcycles like a V12 Kawasaki and 5-cylinder (!!
) Kawi two-stroke. His bikes are absolutely remarkable and they all run and look like factory machines in every way. If you have never seen his channel - check it out - mind blowing (see below). Anyhow - Alan recommends simply burning the gunk off spark plugs with a MAP gas torch which is much hotter than propane. He just plops them into his BBQ and goes at them with a hand-held MAP torch.
So, what is the collective wisdom on the subject of spark plug cleaning?
Pete
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