PO is a jerk...camshaft bolt holes stripped...

Well, here's my rant. If you strip something INSIDE the engine, and its a pretty important part...oh say the bolts that I have to use to hold my camshafts down and tight, and then you bolt the motor back up and say it ran fine last year when I parked it...you are a jerk. Anyways, what I thought may be a simple job, like clean the carbs, check valves etc. has turned out to be much more fun. I have a 1981 KZ1000 LTD that has 2 bolts stripped out on the camshaft brackets (not sure what to call them) this is obviously something I don't want to leave as-is. So could anyone tell me if they have had any luck doing a time-sert or heli-coil in one of these places, or if there is room to drill a tad lower maybe and get a longer bolt? Any help would be appreciated. Been lurking on here far too long so I thought I'd post up and see what you guys come up with. Thanks in advance.

Bruno

When I saw the title of this thread it was obvious what bike you have... this is really common in this bike because the manual has a big error in it and states to tighten those bolts to 12 foot pounds...I stripped 2 in my head last winter. I put helicoils in and have been fine ever since. I will be putting in new cams this winter and was thinking of putting helicoils in the rest of the holes as well for safeties sake. Many people will tell you helicoils suck and to use the time serts...they are likely better but I am happy with the helicoils.

Do you by chance know what size heli-coil I should be getting? That would help a ton so I can search around here for one. Now I feel a LOT better about this! You may have just added a few years to my life by stopping the pounding and blood pressure spike that stayed from last night! haha.

Personally I would do the step stud repair. They are available in different sizes, this link has them at the right hand side of the page. Any local machine/ engineering shop should have some.
www.belmetric.com/html/catalog10.htm

They are called "cam bearing caps". You might want to give the PO a little brake. This is a common problem and it is Kawasaki's fault. They have the wrong torque listed in the service manual. many of us have stripped the cap threads in the head. Installing "quick-serts" or "Helicoils" has been covered many-many times on this web sight. so don't feel bad, you are not the only one in this boat. Yes, I have done it also. In the book it states that the torque should be 12 lb/ft when in fact it should be only be 105 oz/in.

I'll give him a break for doing it...but not a break for buttoning it up and hoping that the motor doesn't destroy itself for the next person...NOT COOL. But again I feel WAY better about this now and its not like I was going to contact him and yell, I enjoy learning how to fix various problems really, just not a dishonest person. I've read tons of the threads on "how-to's" for these heli coils and such, just thought I'd get opinions and let off some steam. Thanks for helping me with both! Anybody have the size handy?

No eBay APP ID and/or Cert ID defined in Kunena configurationThis is a very inexpensive way to fix those.

Otakar I think I've seen you in a few of the forums I'm on (I have a few bikes) and you are ALWAYS a life saver. THANKS! :woohoo:

I'll let you guys know how it goes later tonight.

Bruno

Yep, I have one of those bikes too (the GPz1100 had 8 stripped cam cap holes...the PO never said a word :laugh: ) I used Time-Serts...pricey but they work.

Why the eff can't people just be honest. Oh well. I guess we all learn while doing, and now my 2 stripped cam cap holes make me feel Lucky. What a turn around from this morning eh? Glad I joined this forum! I practically own almost every KZ now...so I thought I should! haha

those that otto linked are the ones I used.

M6x1.00