i was riding home one day and i was stopped with engine running, and i looked at the spark plug and i could see sparks going off on the outside of the plug... everything works fine as far as i can tell from riding it, but is this something i should worry about?
is this bad?
- Thread starter Mike Hunt
- Start date
When you have sparks on the outside of the spark plug it can mean you have a partly fowled plug or dirt,moisture or something allowing the spark to track on the outside of the spark plug. You can try cleaning the outside of the spark plug or replace it some times the spark plug will have cracks very hard to see, or carbon tracks on the outside and it will get so bad that the engine will miss fire. I'm surprised you didn't say anything about there being a slight miss.
You might also check the gap as the spark will go the path of less resistance too much gap will also do the spark on the outside. I haven't seen a china engine do this as most have a weaker spark sounds like your engine has a good spark.
Good thing you didn't touch the spark plug when you saw that it would make for a shocking experience!
let me know how it goes good luck.
I run a gap of around 0.017 to 0.020 but I also run lights on my bikes so you could go more gap say around 0.025 to 0.028
Norman
You might also check the gap as the spark will go the path of less resistance too much gap will also do the spark on the outside. I haven't seen a china engine do this as most have a weaker spark sounds like your engine has a good spark.
Good thing you didn't touch the spark plug when you saw that it would make for a shocking experience!
let me know how it goes good luck.
I run a gap of around 0.017 to 0.020 but I also run lights on my bikes so you could go more gap say around 0.025 to 0.028
Norman
when i was first setting up the engine, i had the gap really wide, like 1/16 of an inch, it seemed to work the best so i kept it like that... could this be causing it?
that's a big gap for one of these engines,close the gap and see if the sparks go away. you might need to clean or change the spark plug due to the sparks going down the outside it can leave carbon tracks on the outside of the spark plug which will allow the current to keep going the least path of resistance.
1/16" gap = 0.0625 so your running one heck of a gap.
I run around 0.017 to 0.020
1/16" gap = 0.0625 so your running one heck of a gap.
I run around 0.017 to 0.020
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Larger gap = larger spark & takes more power from what may be an already weak magneto.
Smaller gap = smaller spark but takes less power.
Which one yer bike likes is fairly random as not alla these el'cheapo Chinese mags are equal, experiment with varying gap sizes till you find the one yer bike likes the most
Smaller gap = smaller spark but takes less power.
Which one yer bike likes is fairly random as not alla these el'cheapo Chinese mags are equal, experiment with varying gap sizes till you find the one yer bike likes the most
