Head Replacement

Ok, here's the deal...
I bought my Seca two season ago for $1000.00. Ran great looks good but not nearly immaculate. I added a wind screen, new seat, swapped the stock bars for drags and risers and installed forward controls. I had to replace the stator coil within a month but haven't had any major issues since(until now). 12,000 problem free miles. All said I'm into her for around $1800.00.

Here's the rub... The no.1 spark plug socket had been repaired with a Helicoil. I knew this when I bought it and took the gamble. It has started to loosen regularly and I am afraid to over torque it and be grounded if it lets go completely. The question I am pondering is whether it would be economically better to pick up a head and swap it out or to sell her off for parts and get a newer R1, Speed Triple or even a new cruiser.

What'er the odds that the head swap will go off without uncovering more problems?

Decisions, decisions!

 

why not just jb weld it in if its that bad? Worse case senario you have to replace the head.......

 

Just finished a head swap on an 81 Seca 750 that had some bent valves.
With the replacement head, I pulled all the valves and lapped them in, replaced the valve seals and put it back together with a new head gasket.
I got a complete head with valves/buckets and shims. Which made it easier setting valve clearances as they were all close when I checked it on the bench.
Runs Great.

 

head swaps arent that bad on these bikes, a few dollars for a head gasket, and about 40-60 for an ebay head. remeber that seca and maxim heads are interchangeable, and i believe the 80-83 heads are the same as well, and maybe even more.

 

You can save the Head you have by Installing a "Big-Cert" in it and wind-up with a sleeve in the Spark Plug Hole rather than the Coil.

The "Big-Cert" is a Repair Kit that is designed to repair screwed-up Heli-Coil jobs.

The beauty of saving the Spark Plug Hole with an Oversized Big-Cert is that you DO-NOT have to remove the Cylinder Head.

These kits are used for threads which have been previously repaired.

These kits will repair holes that were repaired by helicoil, perma-coil,
uni-coil, recoil or any other simular coil style insert that has failed.

http://www.timesert.com/html/bigsert.html

 

thanks Rick I have never seen this and saved the site on my fav's just in case
Shaun

 

Great timing Rick! But I don't see an M14x1.25 insert listed.
I just found the same type of thing at Grainger.com called a cylinder head rethreader

Ordered one for will call Monday!

DOH!
Try clicking on the Spark Plug link at the bottom!

Now yer thinkin' with yer dip stick Jimmy!

 

The trick is to find a Place ... not necessarily a Bike Shop ... to find a Shop or a Tech who has the TimeCert Tool Kit ... and farm the insertion of the Sleeve out to that guy.

If you have to get the Tools ... they're pricey.

 

OK,
I found the Rethreader kit on ebay for a good bit less than Grainger. Grainger had send one from another location so I would not have it till Wednesday anyway so I bought the ebay kit.

According to the MFG it comes with everything needed to install the sleeve. It's only good for aluminum heads as the reaming/tapping is done by hand with a combination tool and a ratchet. It's worth a shot for $15.00!
I'll post pics of the procedure and results later.


Thanks for the replies!

 

I used a Kit like that to put a Sleeve in the One-Hole of my 900.
The Kit came with a generic Thread Locker.

If the Thread Locker you get in the Kit isn't Locktite - High Strength, ...
substitute Locktite for what's in the Kit.

I didn't.
When I was out doing a series of Plug Chops. The Sleeve came OUT with the Plug and I got all freaked-out for a second until I figured-out what happened.

Later, I wire brushed the Sleeve and used real Locktite and let it sit for a day like it says to do.

I keep the Plugs coated with AntiSeize and haven't spun that Insert out of there again.

 

Well, I got the rethread kit yesterday and enthusiastically proceeded to mend my baby!
I didn't take any pics 'cause it seemed to be a simply procedure.
2 hours, an aching left hand and screaming back later I realized that reaming 2mm from a 3/4" thick chunk of aluminum without the aid of electricity is not as easy as you would think!

With the ream/tap mounted on a 1/2" drive 12" ratchet I had to put all my body weight on the head stock to get the tool to bite. This caused the Seca to to want to topple off the side stand. So I had to work with one foot on the ground and one on the highway peg to keep her upright. once the tap portion started to get some purchase things went quicker but by then I was already fit to be tied and ready to bite the heads off of bats and sacrifice small children to the great gods of metallurgy!

But it's done! She's running! And it did take a lot less time than swapping heads would have.

Next month I pull and clean the carbs and check the valve shims.