Taildraggerdave
Active Member
Hello,
I just changed my spark plugs with new in accordance with the 25K service on my '09 Ultra Classic. The plugs are original and have never been out of the engine before. They looked pretty good as well. Installed HD 6R12 plugs.
I have a factory service manual and it says to put Loctite anti seize on the plug threads and torque plugs to 12 -18 foot pounds. 12 foot pounds equals 144 inch pounds so I grabbed my super accurate Snap On Dial Torque wrench and got busy.
I got scared about 125 inch pounds and stopped. I realize the crush washer is compressing but I swear it started to feel light and the needle stopped climbing so I stopped. 18 foot pounds is 215 inch pounds and based on how it felt, it doesn't seem like it would get there.
I've torqued thousands of bolts (really) and you can always tell if the threads are gonna fail when it starts to get easier while in mid torque.
Sure you can stop there but chances are a helicoil or some type of insert is in your future.
When I took the old plugs out they were only tight for maybe an 1/8th of turn then I took them out the rest of the way by hand. Pretty sure I'm cool with the new plugs but just thought I'd toss this out for discussion. I'm probably being paranoid but I do not want to have to do any thread repair to the heads. Bike starts and runs fine.
Take care,
Dave
I just changed my spark plugs with new in accordance with the 25K service on my '09 Ultra Classic. The plugs are original and have never been out of the engine before. They looked pretty good as well. Installed HD 6R12 plugs.
I have a factory service manual and it says to put Loctite anti seize on the plug threads and torque plugs to 12 -18 foot pounds. 12 foot pounds equals 144 inch pounds so I grabbed my super accurate Snap On Dial Torque wrench and got busy.
I got scared about 125 inch pounds and stopped. I realize the crush washer is compressing but I swear it started to feel light and the needle stopped climbing so I stopped. 18 foot pounds is 215 inch pounds and based on how it felt, it doesn't seem like it would get there.
I've torqued thousands of bolts (really) and you can always tell if the threads are gonna fail when it starts to get easier while in mid torque.
Sure you can stop there but chances are a helicoil or some type of insert is in your future.
When I took the old plugs out they were only tight for maybe an 1/8th of turn then I took them out the rest of the way by hand. Pretty sure I'm cool with the new plugs but just thought I'd toss this out for discussion. I'm probably being paranoid but I do not want to have to do any thread repair to the heads. Bike starts and runs fine.
Take care,
Dave