Plugs & Bulbs

[Oddball]

First maintenance post! Go me! Lol.

I have a 2003 GZ 250. My dad, who's worked on bikes for years, and my hubby, who is an Army car/truck/utility vehicle mechanic, can't agree on how many plugs the bike has, lol. I'm trying to find it online, but I'm not having much luck; we were originally going to get a Rebel, when we fell in love with the GZ, so I don't know how much different the years make it. We also need to replace the neutral indicator and left rear turn signal. Is there anything we should know? How do we get into the neutral indicator thing anyway? Lol. Haven't played with it yet, & I'm not a mech of course, lol. I'd like to be somewhat, for my bike, so I can fix it myself. Thanks guys!

[alantf]

First maintenance post! Go me! Lol.

I have a 2003 GZ 250. My dad, who's worked on bikes for years, and my hubby, who is an Army car/truck/utility vehicle mechanic, can't agree on how many plugs the bike has.

??????????????? A mechanic can't look & see that there's one plug lead, going to one plug? Why would he think there's more than one plug? Does he think somebody stole one, then covered up the plug hole? Single cylinder, twin valves. Sorry for being sarcastic, but it's not rocket science for a mechanic to actually follow the single plug lead to the single plug. :cry: :??:

[Water Warrior 2]

Alantf. Been there done that. It's the 2 header pipes that locks the brain into a 2 cylinder thought pattern. Most 4 valve heads have one pipe rather than 2. Suzuki threw a curveball into the mix so they could easily get past the front down tube of the frame.

[alantf]

Agreed, but my point is that it appears that they've not even looked at the engine. I would have thought that a professional mechanic & someone who has worked on bikes for years would have at least taken a look at the engine if they couldn't agree among themselves. :)

[Water Warrior 2]

Oddball, start snooping the "How To" section and be prepared to get your hands dirty. You can do the plug yourself and show up the guys.
Dashlights...........just gently pry up on the lense and all will be revealed If I remember correctly.

Signal lights..........Ebay is your best bet or maybe first check parts for sale on the forum. The OEM dealer price for a new signal will probably stop your heart. A dealer is a last resort for a signal.

[Oddball]

Ouch, Alantf. Seriously, dude. Partially, I was joking. Dad is a Harley man. He didn't have time to study every little wire when he came to take a peek at it.. We didn't study the specs on a GZ a whole lot, just a couple specific things, just knew it was a good little bike. Only a couple question marks would've sufficed. :P We didn't know we'd already be in the tune-ups, but the plug needed replaced. It was well taken care of enough, just wasn't used much. Added note- By the by, I'm the one posting about it, not them; I'm no mechanic, at least not yet.

Water Warrior, thanks!! Dad did think it looked like a 2cyl. That explains the slight confusion. I figured the bulb on the neutral indicator would be pretty easy to get to, and thanks, I will!!

[Rookie Rider]

You can download the manual on this forum for free oddball.

[Rionna]

Congrats Oddball on your GZ. Hopefully you and the guys get it up and running soon. Please post some pics of your bike when you get it working. These guys are very helpful with repair advice and have gotten me through every issue I've had with my bike. Welcome to the forum from Ohio. Ride safe!

[alantf]

Ouch, Alantf. Seriously, dude. Partially, I was joking. Dad is a Harley man. He didn't have time to study every little wire when he came to take a peek at it.. We didn't study the specs on a GZ a whole lot, just a couple specific things, just knew it was a good little bike. Only a couple question marks would've sufficed. :P We didn't know we'd already be in the tune-ups, but the plug needed replaced. It was well taken care of enough, just wasn't used much. Added note- By the by, I'm the one posting about it, not them; I'm no mechanic, at least not yet.

Water Warrior, thanks!! Dad did think it looked like a 2cyl. That explains the slight confusion. I figured the bulb on the neutral indicator would be pretty easy to get to, and thanks, I will!!

:) :) :blush: Sorry, must've been having a bad day when I answered your post. :yes:

[Water Warrior 2]

Ouch, Alantf. Seriously, dude. Partially, I was joking. Dad is a Harley man. He didn't have time to study every little wire when he came to take a peek at it.. We didn't study the specs on a GZ a whole lot, just a couple specific things, just knew it was a good little bike. Only a couple question marks would've sufficed. :P We didn't know we'd already be in the tune-ups, but the plug needed replaced. It was well taken care of enough, just wasn't used much. Added note- By the by, I'm the one posting about it, not them; I'm no mechanic, at least not yet.

Water Warrior, thanks!! Dad did think it looked like a 2cyl. That explains the slight confusion. I figured the bulb on the neutral indicator would be pretty easy to get to, and thanks, I will!!

:) :) :blush: Sorry, must've been having a bad day when I answered your post. :yes:

It's an old guy thing. Sometimes we get uptight just after the fixed income cheque comes in and the power bill just went up 10 %.

[minieggroll]

My neutral light also burnt out. I haven't seen anything on ebay so far though for it

[blaine]

My neutral light also burnt out. I haven't seen anything on ebay so far though for it
It is a standard bulb that you can get at any auto store. :) :2tup:

[Skunkhome]

I don't know about you guys but I can't see my plug or plug lead just casually looking at my bike. I have to get an Allen wrench and remove the head cover. Everyone I meet who is not familiar with the GZ thinks it is a parallel twin. I don't know if there are any motorcycles with two plugs per cylinder but it does exist in automotive and marine engines. So regardless of your vocation and whether or not you think it has one or two cylinders the question as to how many plugs it has is a certainly valid. Not long ago I bought a Ryobi OHC 4 cycle string trimmer and for the life of me I could not find the plug. The manual covered everything from adjusting valves to replacing the timing belt but there were no references to changing or servicing the plug. Even after removing all the readily removable shrouding to access the head and timing belt the plug was no where to be seen. I did not want to go prying on shrouding that had no obvious fasteners visible since the engine was under warranty. As it turned out the little trimmer was defective and pumped the crankcase dry in a matter minutes through a leak somewhere in the head. I returned the trimmer and bought a 2 cycle trimmer instead so I never got a chance to discover the location of the plug. It was very puzzling as there can't be many hiding places in a 33cc engine.