| Author | Message | ||
     Adrenaline0210 |
baad news, sunday coming home from laconia bike week and my bike popped and started running on 1 cylinder. Looked and the spark plug fell out. Upon looking at it, the plug threads are kinda munched and when i tried to thread it back in now luck, stripped. Im going to try and get ahold of a new plug and try that but other than that it looks like im looking for a rear head for my xb9s 03'. Anyone got any ideas of a cheap way out of this? | ||
| Treadmarks |
http://www.timesert.com/html/howtosp.html http://www.automedia.com/Spark/Plug/Hole/Thread/Re pair/ccr20020401st/1 | ||
| Snowhownd |
Huh, I am kinda puzzled as to how this would happen. I wouldn't think a plug backing out and falling out should strip/munch threads unless you did some major piston damage and a chunk of something shoved the plug out. Are you sure there isn't any internal damage? | ||
| Cereal |
Same thing happened to me. Had to drop the entire engine to take the rear head off. I wanted to timesert it but had no luck finding a place to do it and the kit costs the same as a new head, so I had it helicoiled. It's inexpensive and easy. I have 600 miles on it so far with no problems. We'll see how long it lasts. As for how this kind of thing happens, most likely it was cross threaded or over torqued when it was installed. | ||
| Adrenaline0210 |
how much did it cost to have someone heli-coil it? and did where did you bring it, to a motor shop or just a welding shop? | ||
| Cereal |
I brought the head into a motorcycle performance shop in Virginia. The guy acted all cool and said that because I brought it in off the bike, he would only charge me the cost of the coil (which is like $2). When I came back, they tried to charge me $100 saying that they had to go buy a new kit (which is around $35). After an argument, I payed $50 and vowed never to return. So call around and get a quote in writing when you drop it off. Or you can just buy the kit and do it yourself, which is what I would have done in retrospect. If you don't want to take the head off yourself, it's going to get very pricey. Good luck! | ||
| Wantxbr |
$35? I'm sure they spent more like $15 thats what my shop pays from NAPA autoparts. If they were any kind of Performance shop they would've had that kit already. At the most you should have paid $20-$30 for that Helicoil. Timeserts would have been a bit more. Most automotive machine or performance shops can do the timesert or helicoil(prefer timesert) Definantly get a quote first. (Message edited by wantxbr on June 19, 2007) (Message edited by wantxbr on June 19, 2007) | ||
| Wantxbr |
what happened to my post? Did I edit too much...lol? | ||
| 07xb12scg |
How does a plug just back out? | ||
| Cereal |
Wantxbr, I know they were trying to rip me off, and I did get a quote for $2. It just wasn't in writing. It boiled down to paying them the $50, letting them keep the head, or litigation. As for the strange characters: http://www.badweatherbikers.com/buell/messages/406 2/286135.html?1182333895 07xb12scg: Come on man, I just covered that above. As for how this kind of thing happens, most likely it was cross threaded or over torqued when it was installed. Once enough of the threads are mucked up, the compression will eventually back it out. | ||
| Gjwinaus |
"How does a plug just back out?" It was not tight enough to begin with, I had this happen on my XLCR. I did a plug check and after about 100 miles, with a loud pop it disappeared off to the right while I was doing 60 mph ( 100 kph) and I never saw the spark plug again. It ruined the tread in the head} | ||
| Bake |
I know a mechanic that will install a Helicoil with the engine in, head on. He says he greases it up to catch any chips, so far no failures and he has done hundreds. I don't know if I would go that route but it's an option. | ||
| Xb12randy |
I've done many Helicoils on the bike and car cylinder heads with zero problems. You just have to keep a nice fat grease line in the tap and clean it often. IF you take your time and your careful. No Problems. I've never had one that I've done for myself or friends come back out. | ||
| Cereal |
Have you seen where the rear spark plug is, Bake? I'm not saying it's impossible to get the necessary tools in there, but I highly doubt it. If you mean he can do it if the engine is dropped but with the head still on, then at that point it isn't all that hard to remove the head. And it would be a hell of lot safer. |
