I am currently at 10k miles and experiencing heavy vibrations from the motor to say the least. Curious how many miles and if the higher mileage owners have noticed this increase?
Thank you for the input. I was thinking at this time only me, Ogre-fl, and another from FL have experienced this. Still very curious if some people just have not noticed. There is 3 Terra's experiencing this here in Florida. Would think that it means some thing but I can not see why it would matter. Could be coincidence or just law of averages some one is going to have problems. Nothing is perfect.
I have not read any real conversations on the spark plugs. The dual plugs have been mapped and are sequenced to burn the fuel completely. If one is not working proper, this could throw the whole thing out of wack. I bought an inspection camera and will be pulling my plugs and indexing them in the near future. Any plug recommendations?
This is next on my list as they should be changed at 12k miles. Thank you for the idea. Maybe our plugs do burn that fast I am at 10k miles but I ride at 70-90 mph daily maybe the higher rpms can burn the plugs faster. Mag00 please let us know what you find I am very curious in this as well.
Couple things, if it seems to be isolated to a few bikes in Florida, what gas are you all running? We have crap ethanol here, they don't have to label the pumps, so it's a crap shoot. I opt for the premium in this case because there tends to be more "pure" premium than the lower grades. The other thing, my bike suddenly started running crappy at around 2k miles, lots of stalling not smooth, etc. I looked over things and some how the cap on one of the spark plugs had come off. Plugged that sucker back on and it ran normal again. Other than that I couldn't say my bike at 6k ish miles has any kind of extra engine vibes. More to the bars because I replaced the steel bars with aluminum 7/8 bars with a cross bar. And more reflected noise with the skid plate, but no change in the engine.
Good question on the Fuel I only use premium due to the 12:5.1 compression. Here it is 93 octane. We do have 10% ethanol in all the pumps. I try to use shell, BP, or Hess only Gas. In my search I have come up with this should be the best quality but who knows.This weekend I am going to check the fuel injector, replace spark plugs, and so I will be checking the coil on the plug. I just went out side my office to check the coil and it is on firmly. I have not changed the bars but added the 2" anti vibe risers and this has stooped my hands from going numb. Also stopped the shooting pains going into my shoulder from the vibrations. Bike still has tons of vibration. Some I do believe from the front tire. Although the vibrations come in when you give it throttle, anything above 15%. I am changing the front tire as well as wheel bearings shortly as well. If non of this works I am going to try and get ktm to fix it under the 1 year warranty. I have a month. lol I do thank every one here for the suggestions! I want to make this bike last 100k if possible.
Doing research looked it up through ktm-parts.com and got model number. Called NGK got this' NGK 6869 MAR9A-J Nickel Spark PlugSKU: #MAR9A-JITEM : # NGK6869BRAND : NGK 0 reviews > write a review Ducati Motorcycle Plug Multi-Ground Copper Core PerformanceDurabilityFuel EfficiencyLife Span ktm-parts.com wants $35 a piece NGK wants $12.00. They are also looking into any spark that would be a better replacement. Maybe double platinum etc.. They said the Nickel these usually last 50k miles. As you can see it is the spark plug in the Multistrada
You might be onto something with the plugs. I never thought it mattered much (had the original plugs in my Geo tracker for over 10 years). However, I had a 4 stroke outboard that would run like crap if I did not put new plugs in every year. One day it ran fine, the next crap. Slap new plugs in and it would run like new again. You would swear it was a fueling issue, clogged injectors or water in the gas.
As i stated earlier though these are 50k mile spark plugs as I spoke to ngk the only reason they would go out with in 12k miles is they are running too much current through them. Maybe be possible. When I pull them I will find out. Also the only reason I did not think of spark plugs in the past is because 12k miles is very short for spark plugs. I do know in high compression engines if you have to run higher voltage or the compression will put out the spark in the plug. Maybe this is the reason, who knows.
I made the mistake of buying bosch plus 4 plugs once, never again. They were warranteed and still would not replace them. Less than 1000 miles and dead. I found a place that has the NGK for $14. I have not done business with them, so check em out good. Spark plugs on sale @ http://ca-cycleworks.com/ngk-mar9a-j-spark-plug I was looking for a cross reference to something else, just in case the ngk don't like the Terra High comp. Wonder what the beemer guys are using in the dual plug 650.
I checked mine last night. They "look" ok to me. FWIW the plugs on my outboard look OK me too when its running like crap, but new ones make it run right. I checked the gap and one side on each of the plugs was tight. The electrode seems tweeked to one side a bit, but the other side was near the 0.6mm spec gap. I need to source some new ones.
I have checked all the auto parts stores they do no carry in stock. Best place to order them would be from NGK as I showed in the previous post. If you happen to find an alternative let me know. I am really thinking the vibrations are not coming from spark plugs. The 3 people having the problems are very wide spread 5k-10k-18k. I think we are going to keep looking after we change out spark plugs for the answer. Mag I asked NGK if they could cross reference a better plug. In case we could extend the life span. Very good customer service guy said he would look into this and send me an email. I have not got one yet.
That looks a bit on the carbon fouled side. Are you running an AIT spoof or similar? Air filter mod? This is my outboard plug, haven't pulled the center one. I am looking for indexing washers and have not found 10mm ones locally. I have the pod mod, single can, but no spoofer. 2800 miles. When I was driving on the freeway awhile back, it was purring like a kitty. Then, out of absolutely nowhere it started vibing bad. I checked for problems, and cut my ride short. Got home, checked more, change the rear wheel bearings, they were going bad, but that did not fix the vibes. Definitely an engine vibey. Now it is just in an rpm range around 4500 rpm. Some reading I did on performance sites talk about indexing the plug on the bigger bore engines so that the electrode blocks the rush of fuel/air as it comes in. Some guys swear that indexing fixed all sorts of things from the stalling to rough running, and gives up to 1% performance gain. Some say to index with the spark opening to the center. We have two plugs with two grounds. Not a fan of multiple ground spark plugs. Cheapest 1% you can get. As I was typing now, I was thinking if a single ground, standard plug type would hit the piston. Suppose after some time, and the gap gets bigger in these plugs, that the spark starts jumping to the piston for the ground. That cannot be good. Another thing that came to me now. Who knows how much the ignition adapts? We really need to crack these ecu's.
I will pull my spark plugs this weekend. Still need parts. I think I also have bad wheel bearings causing some of the vibe in the handle bars. I have a new tire but waiting on wheel bearings, outer seals, and tube. Then if I can figure out the engine vibe I will be back to what I bought it for.
My Suzuki and Kawi in the old days loved the NGK plugs. Nothing else seem to hold up. But surely technology of today should be better than the 70s. Wouldn't it be great if that is all it was needed to fix it? What are the Beemer singles running? (I will look in a bit)
13500 miles, had an increase in vibrations because I changed to a 15 tooth front sprocket. Not bad, really, but more noticeable. One can w/out cat, Wukkaking spoofer, pod mod. Feels like its running better than ever.
