I was out riding in sludge and slime on Saturday with four other Devon TRF members.
In excess of 85 miles was done in five hours - low average I know but the conditions were special.
After lunch it decided to rain quite heavily and it continued for the rest of the day. We all got a little damp under the collar.
Needless to say the TTR was completely covered in mud, sludge, clarts and cow poo by the time I reached home. The accompanying riders and I even stopped mid ford (Sidmouth ford) and cleaned our boots and bikes of the thick stuff.
Once safely home the hose pipe was coupled up and the drive, footpath and road turned red/brown as the bike shed its accumulated slime.
Since I have recently renewed the tyres, chain, sprockets and brake pads I thought I would check other things because the splattering had literally covered the engine completely, together with the hidden bits beneath the tank and the side panels, as it does!
To make things easier to clean I had previously put a sponge plug in the spark plug recess - in the hopes of being able to check the plug easier if needed mid ride.
I must admit that it must have been well over a year ago when I did this and when the sponge was now removed and the resultant gunge was chipped out and Hoovered up, the sight was surprising.
It looked as if the plug had really rusted itself in situ.
I managed to remove it and I was surprised that it wasn't broken during removal. I took the opportunity to wire brush and clean the plug exterior and then I cleaned and faced the electrodes and set the gap to the requisite 30 thou.
It was replaced with a liberal Copaslip coating on the threads. I then took an old car washing sponge and fashioned another infill cover to keep as much crud out as possible.
Job done. I promise to keep the spark plug on the maintenace schedule in future.
The chain, sprockets, tyres and brakes were checked and not found to be lacking, thankfully!
I like the sponge idea, no problems with the heat I take it (looking at it I guess that is one of those retorical jobbies) I'll treat myself to a new plug and then attack a sponge with the scissors! Anyone bothered swapping plugs to an iridium? I noticed a difference when I used to have a F650GSPD, but is it worth it on me ole Raid?
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Beaten paths are for Beaten Men:
Currently to be found bimbling around Devon, where muddy badgers abound.
Just a thought, Martyn. Is it possible that your sponge is holding moisture around the plug and promoting corrosion? It seems unusual to have that kind of corrosion around a spark plug after even a year and a half--unless you store your bike quite close to the ocean.
Whenever I clean the bike after a ride I do tend to hose down vigorously and obviousy it's parked up with a wet sponge.
I will have to come up with an alternative, something like my Bandit has, like a rubber washer through which the plug lead passes and is a snug fit with the top edges of the cam box.
I was looking at changing my spark plug the other day, but cannot work out how to get to the thing :/ do you have to take the tank out of the way? Thanks Dan
Tank off is the best way to remove the plug - it gives you room to scrape all the sh1t out of the space between cam boxes. Saves it all disappearing down the hole when the plug's removed.
Mr Yamaha's original plug spanner that came with the bike is useful if you don't want to remove the tank. It's still a tight fit though.
I removed my spark plug in situ no problem,just used a ratchet and spark plug socket blew out the area with an airline first ,not much movement and it takes a while and its a bit fiddly getting it back in but have done it a couple of times now.
Looks good Martyn, I think the rubber will stop the worst getting in whilst allowing the trapped water to evaporate. Good work, I'll look at doing something similar myself as I've got a shiny iridium spark plug to fit soon :)
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Pete Brown
Keighley, West Yorkshire
'94 Yamaha TTR 250 Raid (with Open Enduro headlight, grrr...)
