Modern Buddy

Same old story, 2009 Stella 2T was having trouble starting, stalled at stop lights, and finally wouldn't turn over at all. I cleaned the jets (they looked OK) then turned my attention to the spark plug, which is where I discovered the problem. The wire connecting the boot had corroded off completely! The boot was still firmly sealed to the plug, but the wire that should be connected to the other side of the boot was just dangling. The corrosion is obvious - it looks like oxidized copper.

I have two and a half questions:

1) How do I fix this?

2) Why did this happen, and how do I prevent this from happening again?

A little about my Stella: about 2000 mi, lives in mostly sunny Palo Alto, CA, stored outside w/waterproof cover.

Do y'all have any ideas? Thanks a lot!

You can buy a length of spark plug wire at any decent motorcycle shop. Always get a little more than you need. You can also buy the plug boots at a motorcycle shop. NGK makes a decent boot for about $5-6.

The plug wire simply threads onto a barbed fitting at both the coil and the plug boot. Pull back the rubber cover from the wire where the wire enters the coil, then twist the wire counterclockwise to unscrew it. Slide the boot off of the old wire and put it on the new length of wire. Push the new wire onto the coil barb, twist it clockwise until it snugs up. Push the boot back over the coil fitting. Fit the new plug boot to the other end of the wire in a similar manner.

1100!

Thanks so much! When I first looked at the plug and wire, there was so much corrosion that I couldn't see the threads. I cleaned off the corroded crud and pushed the wire back into the boot and BOOM, she started up right away! Yeehaw! I guess this is a problem I'll have again unless I replace the wire and boot. I'll check out the local shop tomorrow. Thanks for your help!