Well with the lousy February weather I am finally changing the plugs on my 2012. What a pain in the ass this is for a guy with big hands like me. Since a plug wrench didn't come with ZX14R's anymore I ordered a 1st gen plug wrench ($16.00 shipped) and so far it is doing the job. This is my 3rd ZX14 and I had forgotten what a pain in the ass this simple maintenance is on the 14. Brought back memories of Brock telling me about engineers from Kawasaki Japan visiting his shop and asking what could be improved for racers on the 14. His first answer was get rid of the frame and use one like the Busa. He told them it was like trying to work on a race car with the hood welded shut LOL. Not impossible but it makes everything harder.

Yes i reckon the busa frame is just fine but it sure is nice to be able to change the air filter without lifting the fuel tank. Kaw did a great job on the oil filter down below though.

Still fighting this (#1&2).

Shit, last thing I want is a flexie flier and lose that rigidity. I think Brock missed: the top end can be removed so easy access is that frame. No separate barrels on the 14 so to do any work, you pull the engine out. But if say we are looking at the plugs and want to read those, yes, race wise, that's an issue. That's your x-ray into each cylinder.

!&2 Scenario:
Compression: Shoulda checked when the plugs were out. This way you eliminate the 1 and 2 for this variable. But the odds say two are lost? Doubt it.
Spark: What are the odds here too, that both spark sticks took the proverbial shit at the same time.
Fuel: Short of swapping sticks to 3 and 4? I can eliminate this within seconds.

My approach is to start/stop-engine = Under 2 seconds. Hundreds of times a second it fires off, I want cold pipes. This way, that one warm one shows fuel. The cold one is possibly a clogged spray hole(s) at the injector. And we are talking about a sitter here. I don't know of anything short of thinking the bike is sitting on the side stand; pressure is 14.7 in the feed tube; say 3/4 sort of drain out at the tube due to the bike's angle; 3/4 dry out and 1/2 reach that stale point from sitting, and the varnish closes the holes. Something like that.

The can't be's:
Can't be the battery if 12v is feeding 5v to the processor and 3/4 sing to the music.
Can't be the crank sensor if 3/4 yada-yada.
Can't be a torn filter component in the fuel pump if 3/4 yada-yada.
Can't be the odds about spark sticks signing off together, let alone how durable they are heat wise, whereas you never hear about a stick shorting out. When I hear parts failures, I gauge what's his name in Cali, who poured well over 100k miles on the bike?

Shit again, I totaled 2 of them and I was popping the throttle bodies out close to flat-rate times... if you don't count peeling off the plastic. So the wild guess is clogged injectors and only 2 seconds knows for sure. Do we try injector cleaner and run a tank worth thru it? Do we look at motion-pro and buy that injector cleaner from them? Do we look up utube and find a meguyveer way of loopholing the pro-tool, go by way of that 9v battery another way of being in the cheap seats? How many time$ are we going to use that pro-tool?

I'll match your fat hands. Works for me.

Right now, all you have to do is go out to the bike, start-stop it and your finger is right up at pipe entering the head. 3/4 feel hot/warm and 1/2 remain cold = Fuel clog @ 1/2 injectors.

All this make sense to you, Rook?

* Last updated by: Hub on 2/22/2021 @ 10:00 AM *

There are trade offs with both bikes and the fact that this is my 3rd ZX14 plus a ZX11 & a ZX12 pretty much says where my sentiment lies. The plug change is still a pain in the ass on the 14. Not commenting on any other maintenance on the bike which is relatively easy.

I’ve done it twice ( once to change just plugs and the other to check valve clearance). It’s a bit tight but I don’t remember having to much difficulty. Think I had to unbolt and move a few items out of the way.

* Last updated by: Nastynotch on 2/22/2021 @ 2:18 PM *

The 14 is probably one of the hardest bikes to work on that I've owned. Reminds me of the FZR1000 I had in '91 where the top end of the engine was partially hidden by the frame but the 14 takes it to a new level! A plug change is a 2hr+ job for me. Removing and refitting the throttle bodies, then balancing them is another PITA. Still worth the effort though.

The plastic removal was no problem, neither was getting to the top of the valve cover and unplugging the stick coils. Once the stick coils are removed changing the plugs is no problem with the Kawasaki plug wrench and a gear wrench. This is not my first rodeo, I have been doing this on all my bikes since 1972. What is the challenge now is getting the coils out. It took hours to get the #3 & 4 coils out and I still have not gotten the #1 & 2 out. Big hands and the coils being so tight they can only be rotated with difficulty is the problem. This is the first plug change since the bike was delivered and it now has only a little over 10,000 miles. I will get it done and you can be sure some high temp lube will go on the O-ring sealing surfaces of the coils when they go back in.

Before I changed mine,there was no grease on the insides.What I did(against what the manual says)is get a longish large screwdriver(flat tip)and place it under the coil plastic plug.Flat against flat.THEN I gently(stress gently)rotated the coil several degrees as far as I could both ways while applying LIGHT pressure under the coil plug.You have to be really careful ya don't try and just force the coil up while turning.Have to do it gently and patiently.The driver shank right there needs to be all the way contacting the flange(plastic piece at the plug).Not out at the open end of it.Go slow.Turn and leverage the driver under there with light pressure.That's how I did mine.Twice actually.Third time I applied some light grease in the boot when reinstalling on the plug.Next removal was very easy.Still used the driver for getting in there and under,but the coil slipped off very easy.Mind you,I could only get my fingertips in there to turn the coil.Just make sure you're turning the coil while applying upwards pressure.They will break if ya force em too quickly.Course you know that.
The rotating is not much,so I had to just relax and do a little at a time.Probably only a few degrees.Once the coil came loose,I had to take time and just work the angle out to get it to free from the hole.Went fine.Frustrating,but fine.
The problem I really had was reinstalling.1,2 and the one to the outermost right side went in nice and easy.(using a tubing attached to the plug).That second one in simply was not gonna thread right.I bought a threadcleaner tool,and used that to just get past the point where it stopped the plug from going in cleanly.That worked.Still don't have any idea why it did that.The plug threads were fine.
I never had that issue before.Just this one time.Good thing I listened to that voice saying...'if you force this,yer gonna screw up the cover threads.Then what?'

* Last updated by: Grn14 on 2/22/2021 @ 10:48 PM *

Best way to remove a stick coil is to twist the body so you unstick the compression made due to time. My way is to twist back and forth, a screwdriver under the L of the stick where it clips in and pry up. The twist is the trick breaking it free from that long sitting [stationary] compressed state.

* Last updated by: Hub on 2/23/2021 @ 8:59 AM *

They have three rubber ribs like O-rings. You'l feel each rib pop free as the coil is worked out of the hole. The two on the left are more difficult to reach because they are under the air box more.

* Last updated by: Rook on 2/23/2021 @ 5:04 PM *

Ok got this done finally when I ignored the service manual. Used my long reach needle nose pliers and levered 1 & 2 out. Applied high temp grease to ribs before re-installing plug coils. Could not get them out by hand period. This was the 1st plug change since the bike was delivered in 2012 which may explain why they were so tight. Only 10,000 odd miles on the bike and they didn't look like they needed to be changed but I was in there to install quick shifter
so why not.

All depends who put it together I guess. Mine wern't hard to break loose and I changed them at a lot higher mileage. I thonk it might have been 48000 miles. They were in about 7 years. They did look like they needed to be changed.