Been sitting with the NGK IMR9C-9HES spark plugs on the desk and hear so many pain in the ass stories about changing them . But its going to dyno next week cleaned filters and oiled them serviced it so thought id give it a bash last night. Manual says just to lower rad remove airbox and nothing about top ???. So i did remove the airbox which is a simple job been done before to do pair mod. Took bolt out of bottom of radiator bracket, bolt out left side of rad bolt out of overflow bottom unplugged rad fan slide radiator out the way ( this is no way indepth report might just help others). The rad does goes go south quite a lot well enough. Removed front airduct part by 2 allen keys underneath the duct these go up either side of bottom of duct by top of rad also two screws that you can see by looking through spa of the frame these hold the front duct to the rear duct, see side pic of bike with white circle they are in here. Now i didnt remove the front ram completely i pulled it out so the rear cleared the cylinder head and i just tucked it down and left it there all spark plug work i done from the top. The remaining piece of ram thats under throttle cables 2 holes that your filters get air from looks like it aint coming out but i twisted completely upside down turning towards front of bike then wiggled it out the right side of bike. You have quite a bit of space now (well if you have done pair mod but this valve is simple to remove if you have not). i removed the connectors off the 4 coils they are marked but i had a sharpie so marked them just in case i have a quickshifter so lotta plugs under there. cylinder 4,3,2 coils popped off by gettin my fingers under them and just a little brute force not much. I couldnt get to 1 really the frame hides it quite a bit. So i got a big spanner turned coil around put it through spa of frame (see pic) and with no force at all sort of buried it underneath and popped straight off. Now what made removing plugs simple was that i had the original spark plug tool when this is in the plug hole it leaves a 10mm hex head so i was able to get my socket onto it easily and also holds the plug when its loose it also bends in half so when removing the buried plug you have the space. People say use the after its undone to grab the spark plug but there is not a lot of space and you have to really move coils sidewards to get out 4 and 1 so i think the plug would drop off. but i could be wrong ?. Plugs that i removed didnt look to bad to be honest bike has only done around 10 k i know it says inspect 16k replace 32k but bike does around 10-12 trackdays a year fast group and it done 2400 in europe last year so i thought id treat it ha ha I installed plugs lightly with plug spanner to finger tight then could even just about get torque wrench in to finish the job at 16nm. Only problem i had was i pushed all coils into the head onto plugs i left the middle 2 with connectors facing towards rear of the bike as it looks like there is a cut out for them but you cant get connectors on not enough room so i had to pop them back out turn towards front of bike and reconnect. Also check the o ring on the fuel line that goes to top injectors i only looked last night and mine had little tear in it so had to order from Honda It all went back together a lot easier than parts come off. I started this at 7:45 pm last night and i finished at 9:45pm. PM if any advice needed or anyone close im happy to lend a hand and tools if you do the travelling cheers Lee.
Good one. I got as far as getting the airbox off last year on my rr5 and had a look but gave up. It's a lot of buggering about just to change plugs I think
Its not too difficult, take yer time and follow the manual, yes it,s tight but having small digits is a blessing sometimes
I thought it would be even told the missus go to bed gonna be a long one . I just took bits off steadily didnt tug pull at anything and it went quite well, If ya gonna change um in future pop down on a weekend ill give you a hand no probs
Did my plugs yesterday. Was thankful for this thread as was following the Workshop manual but for the life of me couldn't get the air duct out. Saw you'd taken the airbox out and thought well it will make things easier. It certainly did and i'd have to say it really is the only way of getting that duct out. Made it easier to get it back too. If anyone can do this job without taking the airbox out, i take my hat off to you! Anyway plugs in, throttle bodies cleaned (carbon'd up) BMC airfilters cleaned - bike all back together and took out for a ride. Didn't feel much difference, was hoping for something! Oh well at least i've seen bits of the old girl that i didn't think i would. Thanks for the wrie up by the way, invaluable.
Well I attempted mine today and gave up once I got the top of the air box off, looks an absolute nightmare. A mate of mine is a Honda techy so gonna pay him to do it. Also, why does my bike appear to have four injectors in the air intake and four more in the inlet manifold?
Hi Bud,Ive stripped most of my rr4 tonight to change the plugs,most of the air box off,rad is loose sort of,but there doesnt seem to be much movement in it.Do you need to drop the rad to remove screws from the remaining part of the air filter housing to access the plugs.If you can give any tips assuming the rad has not yet been moved but everything else relating to airbox removed would be appreciated,cheers,Colin.
You need to remove all the screws for the air box at the top so it lifts out, leaving just the ram air duct. The rad only needs lowering a few inches so you can split the front and rear sections of the ram air duct. The rear section will remove from above the engine and the front section just needs pulling forward out of the way of the coil/plugs. n.b. There will be a screw either side of ram air duct so you can separate the front and rear sections of it.
