Stripped spark plug holes

Dammit! Downtime! Went to go for a ride Saturday morning and she started to miss a little. I figured no big deal, I've never removed the plugs since I bought the bike. I always figured if it ain't missin, everything's fine. So I cruise back up to my house and go to remove the plugs.
Took them out and discovered that the two inner plugs (2&3) were stripped. Some ace mechanic actually JB welded the plugs into the head. :pinch:
To add insult to injury, he glued in Champion cheapo plugs instead of NGK's.
No worries though. A friend of mine has a Time-Sert kit I can use. Now if I can just catch a day when it isn't 103 degrees outside...
OTOH, if anybody has an extra J head, lemme know.

you know the sad part is, some dumb sob put more thought time and effort into rigging it than he would have done by doing it right:(

Very true! And had I known about it, I wouldn't have been trusting it to get me back and forth to work almost every day. Sure gald I hadn't planned a big cross country jaunt with it.
OTOH, it has worked for over a year and a half of some pretty aggressive riding. That JB Weld is some good s*&%.

just a hint j-b weld is not structurally sound try a dowel and a mallet shold just pop loose. to fix the plug hole over drill insert heli coil( a heli coil is actually better than new:) ). hope this helps.

Oh no, I've had some bad experiences with Helicoils. Every single one I've ever used, and then went to remove the bolt later, the helicoil would just uncoil itself or break. Not good on something you expect to take apart again, like a spark plug.
The best ones are the Time-Serts. They're a solid threaded bushing that get swaged into place. There's also another thread repair insert called a King-sert. They have four little keys that you drive down through the threads after you install it, but I haven't been able to find a civilian distributor for them. Seem to be oriented to military aerospace work, and I've never seen a metric Kingsert.

www.timesert.com/

you can go to napa and get the thread inserts they have, get the longer one and trim it off to the right length, they work real well, for some reason I have always had problems with helicoils for spark plugs

Helicoils have worked better for me than inserts. I just did a plug thread last month and used the helicoil. Drill carefully with the correct bit size. When using the (provided) tap a little lubrication is needed. Vacuum out the shaving and just to be sure you got everything, use a Q tip with a little dab of grease on it. This will pick up the stubborn shavings.

I used some permanent Loctite (Permatex) on the helicoil insert and put it in nice an snug. I have had the plug out a half a dozen times for plug chops and new installs and the helicoil hasn't moved.

Just my 2.5 cents worth.

Cheers-Colin Firth-Ontario Canada

Speaking from experience: I have a 73 Z1 that had an insert installed by the former owner that I did not know about. One day while riding it quite hard on a country road 14 years ago, the plug blew out at about 7 grand, the plug stayed connected to the plug wire and hit me in the knee. With the strange slap to my knee and one hell of a noise coming from the motor that i had never heard at that speed, I discovered what a pucker factor of 9.9 was all about. After RIGGING it back the incorrect way so I could make Daytona that year, I put it on the back burner because the bike STILL ran. What a mistake that was, after sitting for three weeks without being started, I went to go for a ride, low and behold the motor would not turn over. Knowing the cause ( moisture got into the RIGGED hole and froze the rings to the sleeve).I stored the bike for 14 years the way it sat, frozen. I just got her road worthy again last month after the 14 years, 2 wives, and 2 kids. I will be posting pics of the project that took longer than expected. The moral to the story is. If you don't have the money or the time to do it right the first time, where do you get the money or the time to do it right the second time. I have learned alot from that lesson. I have owned the bike for over 23 years now, and MISSED her very much while she was sleeping.



P.S. Should I name her FROZEN in TIME, TIME DELAYED, or STILL KIKIN. Any suggestions would be appreciated.


P.S.S. Fix it the correct way and all will be well.

Well despite it being 104 degrees in my driveway last night, I decided to go ahead and tackle the job. I love those Time-Serts! Very nice. I have both of them installed. Just waiting now for the loktite to cure.
I used grease in the flutes of the tap, plus I vacuumed out the inside of the bore with a piece of 1/4" brake line adapted to my Mina-vac, www.browntool.com/productselect.asp?ProductID=194 .
The only thing I'm worried about is the second Time-Sert I installed. It didn't go in quite right. The swaging tool started swaging the insert before it was fully seated. I tried to pull it back out to try another insert, but it would NOT budge. So I went ahead and completed the swage. What I was left with was about .040" of the insert sticking out of the top of the hole. I used the tap to cut it flush. I'm not worried about it coming loose or anything, but what I am worried about is that there is now a .040" deep groove around the end of my spark plug inside the chamber. I understand that sharp points and edges inside a combustion chamber can cause hot spots which can cause detonation, where the hotspot ignites the air fuel mixture too early in the compression stroke, grenading my motor.
Thoughts please?

Post edited by: riverroad, at: 2007/08/15 08:01

while it may not be the best job done, you have two choices pull the head and try to remove the insert or ride it, I know it sounds tacky but, if it were me I would put some copper anti sieze on the plugs and ride it, I dont think you will have any major issues

Yeah, I was planning on putting a little extra spoodge on the end of the plug in hopes of filling up that groove. But even if I took the head off, I'm not sure how I'd get the thing back out. That sucker is IN THERE.
I guess only time will tell.