83 750 Maxim stripped #4 spark plug hole

Well I was taking the plugs out of my 83 and found the PO had stripped the plug hole. It was only in by a few threads and I just pulled it out. Anyone have any luck installing a helicoil with the head still on the bike?

I don't want to get a bunch of metal shavings in that cylinder

MN

 

They do make inserts that can be installed without removing the head, Full-Torque has one type but if you check with your local ford dealer, the service manager can tell you what they do for the triton heads because you know that Ford isn't pulling the heads to install inserts for warranty claims.

There is an issue with some of the inserts being made of stainless vs the alum head and different exp co'eff's but that generally rears its head more on racing engines then street engines.

I've done two (not on yamaha's) that worked well. I had shoved a grease covered strip of cloth into the cylinder first, then brought the piston as high as I could before starting, then very carefully extract the cloth and suck out the rest by "rinsing the combustion chamber with WD40 while on the sidestand, then vacuming as much of the liquid out as possible, what remained hasn't caused a problem on either repair.

good luck though, I'd still recomend removing the head...but on a cheap bike, sometimes it doesn't make sense to since it will still get you home on 3 cylinders.

jeff

 

I have used the helicoil brand sparkplug hole repair. It cost about 30 bucks for the whole kit. Worked great. I plan on doing it to the other 3 holes when I take the head off this winter.

 

Definitely take a look at these!:

http://www.timesert.com/

http://www.newmantools.com/kee.htm