The BSA A7-A10 Forum
Technical (Descriptive Topic Titles - Stay on Topic) => Lucas, Ignition, Charging, Electrical => Topic started by: chaterlea25 on 07.06. 2025 20:55
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Hi All,
Rather than adding to the iridium sparkplug thread, I thought it better to start a new thread?
Hopefully Admin will move the relevant posts to this one?
OK, So back near the end of April I fitted a pair of Brisk plugs to the SR, as I fed fed up with NGKs packing up at short milage as reported in the other plug thread.
Since I had a right knee joint replacement I can no longer kickstart the SR, so fitted an electric starter to it.
Cold starts were nerve wracking with the NGK's, so much so when at home I would bump start the bike down the drive or downhill on the road outside if it did not fire up on the drive rather than have the starter winding and winding the engine without results
Today I was on another vintage run covering 115 miles, so have about 300miles on the Brisk plugs. Now the bike starts on the first touch of the button / turn over of the engine cold or hot *smile*
Today there were a couple of guys commenting on how easily and quickly it fired up ( and where can they get the electric leg for their own A10's)
I will have to report back in a few months when I have comparable milages to the NGK's to see how reliable they are.
*????*
John
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john there are loads of ngk knock offs and there are signs to look for on the stamping and the print, i saw this on face ache a while ago. i am running ngk b7es on both beeza engines and they start easily *beer* ps i think worty was on about a different plug so worty do some googly about the fakes and try 7es plugs. *beer*
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I also have Brisk spark plugs fitted, but as I'm away from home I can't tell you the grade.
I agree with John, starting is more reliable. The bike will start either 1st or 2nd kick regardless of engine temperature.
Frank.
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Useful site with comparison table.
http://www.f2motorcycles.ltd.uk/brisk_spark_plugs.html
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And yet mine has been on NGKs for years and still starts first kick.
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I have swopped to Brisk to give a them a go. Changed nothing and for the first time ever I now have a tickover, out of the blue she just now ticks over. Picks up really well and no spit backs like it used to. I dont know what they have done differently but it seems to work.
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My Goldie failed to start on Sunday when I was hoping to take her to a BSA Day.
Usually (well, always really) she starts in two kicks, but Sunday was a fail-to-start.
Checked lunchtime today and the plug has failed....a Brisk too.
Never had one fail before. *eek* *eek*
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I've had all types fail, Bosch,Champion,NGK so Brisk has a lot to prove *smile*. My A7 eats plugs (I have owned her for 40 years and had one change of magneto and gone from an iron head to alloy)
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Well they didnt cover themselves in glory. 8 days in and the bike was running really rough, coughing and mis firing. Pulled the plugs as they were the last thing I had changed and found the gaps had opened out. It had increased to 30 thou *eek*. So I popped the old NGK's back in and smooth as silk again. Why would they do that? The NGK's never open out
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I have swopped to Brisk to give a them a go. Changed nothing and for the first time ever I now have a tickover, out of the blue she just now ticks over. Picks up really well and no spit backs like it used to. I dont know what they have done differently but it seems to work.
New plug effect didn’t last long.
Gaps opening up significantly in 8 days sounds impossible. Are the electrode tips eroded or rounded off?
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I know crazy, electrode tips etc look fine but they have got worse were fine start with
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It must be the central electrode moving in the insulator
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Just picked up this thread and Bergs' comment about knock-off NGKs.
I picked up a pile of new NGKs from Evilbay some time ago for not a lot of cash (B6HS). I checked them for fakes, but they seem legit. I can't ever remember having a NGK fail on me on a four stroke motor - on two stroke items in my youth, I wore the electrodes down to paper thin on occasions and they still worked.
I've used NGKs in all my cars and bikes over 43 years, and found them to be almost faultless. The only time I changed them with the GF was when I had loads of engine trouble with the RM 'rebuild' and was trying everything to get it to run right. I saved all those plugs and they still work absolutely fine. In the 13000 miles I've done on the GF, I've changed the plugs twice, and that was because I thought it was about time and not because they were a problem. Out of the boxful of new plugs I bought, most are still untouched.
Not sure what to say to people who've had bad experiences with NGK plugs, they're excellent in my experience? *dunno*
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Interesting what you say Worty.
I don't change plugs as often as I 'should' either but the NGKs I use - B7ES on 7.5 and 8.5:1 alloy head engines running on E5 98 octane and magnetos - seem to do really pretty well.
On my ironheads A10 (7.25:1 with mag) and B31 (std piston and alternator & coil) I ran those B6HS, for many miles without changing them regularly and they also behaved well.
I've flirted with Champion and Bosch occasionally and there's nowt wrong with them but NGKs are my first choice.
(I actually think a lot of 'plug trouble' on standard tune motors is in fact summat else, because the vast majority of our machines ought to run fine on makers' spec plugs . . .but that's a different can of worms.)
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Me too! Long history of successful use of NGK spark plugs.
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The only time I had a 'problem' with NGK was entirely my fault. I found the screw cap could work its way loose over time and, concerned this could cause a problem, put threadlocker on it not realising that said threadlocker acted as a partial insulator *doh* *doh* *doh*
Once I discovered my error, I now screw the caps over a few strands of copper wire which 'locks' them in place.
The bike almost always starts within one or two kicks from cold, maybe three if it's hot.
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Screw caps coming loose shouldn't really be a problem (do 'em up with pliers) but if they do come loose then just crimp the plug stud thread slightly with the wire cutting part of said pliers and screw the nut back on.
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Just a question before I try Brisk plugs. Are the ceramic bodies glazed? All other brands of plug I've seen lately seem not to be glazed, so soak up unburned fuel and collect contaminants.
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I seem to recall that they are glazed (unlike many others) which is why they can be cleaned.
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If modern NGK plugs are not glazed, why does that not appear to matter on my 650 of another marque in the BSA/Triumph group?
I have managed to foul and clean the plugs many times.