Friday night maintenance. Was a lot easier changing the spark plugs than I thought. Plus you get to clean up under the tank!

 

Nice. At what mileage did you change your spark plugs?

 

I’m right under 8k. The service manual states to change every 2 years or 30k. She’s a 2018 so decided to change them out but to be honest they didn’t look too bad. Was fairly easy to do. Main thing is to be careful and not accidentally scratch anything haha

 

I would have gone to the 30,000 mark if I like the way the bike was running , but it’s nice to hear that it wasn’t a total pain in the *** to do .

 

Yea if I had to put a mileage on when to change them I’d say 15k. 2 screws on the gauge console, conector for it is in front of the tank with a grommet and that comes off. 2 bolts on the tank, lift up to disconnect fuel pump connector then try to start bike to purge the fuel system from pressure. Tooless Quick disconnect for fuel line and a slip on small vent hose under the tank and that’s pretty much it!

 

The next time will be even easier.

 

Thanks. I'm setting right at 29k miles now. On previous non-Harley bikes I've had, it always seemed that the recommended spark plug interval was way earlier than needed. I'll still do my plugs here soon, but if they look really good when I change them, I might go 40k before the next change.

 

What did you use to remove the spark plug boots on the right side? I see a number of tools available to remove the plug boots online, but I'm not going to just order a bunch in the hopes one will work.

Also, doesn't it take three hands at one point? One to hold the rear of the tank up and two to disconnect the fuel pump connector.

 

I've had my tank off several times. I just hold the tank up with one hand and disconnect the fuel line and fuel pump cable with the other. If you have a hard time doing those with one hand, you could use a small wood shim to prop up the back of the tank.

It also helps not to have a full 5 gallons in the tank. Ride as needed to get the tank low.

 

It was kind of difficult to get those plug boots off at first as there isn’t much room. Not sure what tool you’d use besides wire boot pliers but it would be a tight fit. The rear cylinder has the oil cooler lines routed right next to it so doesn’t help. They’re not in there complete straight, they’re a bit angled but all I did was used both of my index fingers and shoved them in as much as I could. I wiggled back and forth (on the boot not wire) and pulled up in the angled direction. It didn’t really require too much force If you pull up in the direction they’re in. As far as the tank goes I shoved some microfibre towels in between the backbone and tank to hold it up a little while I disconnect the fuel pump connection. Hope that helps.