For today’s edition of “you won’t believe this....” 82 G1

[JerEazy]

I was completely baffled. My J17 was hitting perfectly acceptable compression! But it wouldn’t run right. Tried a quick muffler BBQ. No difference. Cleaned and re-did carbs... nope... ugh. Was just going to do crank seals as a maybe... hope it helps.

While I had the muffler off replacing the exhaust gasket (found one in Minnesota from a snowmobile dealer. I decided to look into the exhaust side of the jug (**** me for not taking pictures) and I see this “chunk” of hardened goop hanging from the top...

I thought that was weird of course. So I roll the piston up to block the inlet and jam my finger in there. Chunks of oil crud start coming out. Piece by piece.... “what the eff?” I though.

I grab a pick and get the last bit out... there’s a hole there.... “you’ve got to be kidding me...” I stick the pick up inside and pull out the rest. Take a little wet sand paper and rub down the inside. I put my finger over the hole and crank the engine. Yep. I feel air pulsing our. It’s the exhaust side of the head. Completely gunked up from over oil, too short of rides or whatever.

I don’t have the muffler back on, so she won’t stay running because there’s no back pressure. But when I cranked it and manually fingered the throttle - it shot a flame out of the exhaust side of the jug and the tone of the “crank” completely changed...

Oh. And my compression dropped 15 PSI. Now reads 90. Confirming my crank seals. But I’ll be pulling off the head and replacing the head gasket as well.

[JerEazy]

Oh - and we’ll add this wonderful find at the coil...





Previous owner just shaved down the end of a plug wire and jammed it in there.

[griffo002]

Unbelievable ...

[JerEazy]

Feel free to post your own fun finds. I’m tearing into the engine tomorrow- I’m sure there is bound to be some other nuggets

[dezrcr822]

Ill keep the coil wire theme going. Under the electrical tape were five corroded strands of wire wrapped around the electrode. Must be a J17 thing.

[JerEazy]

FYI this coil works as a replacement with one exception: the spark plug boot does not fit on the spark plug. So a screw on Cap/boot is necessary. But total cost is much less than the Yamaha replacement.

1PZ YG1-CW1 Ignition Coil Wire Plug... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071ZV9V4C?ref=yo_pop_ma_swf

No more arching and if I run my hand along the wire and coil as the engine turns over it doesn’t shock me.

Win win.

[Lochlin]

I think 90 psi might be about right for an '82? If I am not mistaken that was the low compression engine year.

[JerEazy]

You are correct. After new crank seals I went from 100ish to 90. But I had to remove the head. So now with a new head gasket I’m at about 95 cold WOT