Hi All,
I accidently overtightened one of the six bolts that hold the valve cover a little bit.
I barely felt it to give and immediatelly stopped torquing it. It holds okay for now, but I expect problems next time I have to remove and reinstall the valve cover.
While I have the time to think about it, I'd like to weigh in options of fixing the problem. From what I understand the bolts thread into camshaft bearing caps. I have a spare set of all four camshaft bearing caps from a spare head I have.
Would it be okay to simply replace the bearing cap with another one? Is it possible to fix the stripped threads in the bering cap?
Jenya
Bearing caps are not generally interchangable between heads, they are line-bored with the head as part of the manufacturing process and there will be no guarantee of a perfect alignment or satisfactory clearance if you mix and match. Some people will say its worked for them but this can be attrubuted more to luck than anything else. Try it if you want but you are taking a chance
The thread can easily be reclaimed by helicoiling and IMHO thats the way to go.
Yes helicoil ...
Cool.
Buddha.
Thanks guys, really apprecite it.
Are hellicoils easy enough to install on your own or is it better to hire a shop for the job? I do own a drill press. Where helicoils normally bought from locally? Or is it always cheaper and smarter to buy them from internet?
Jenya
You need to do the sums and decide whats best for you. Find out how much a helicoil-kit costs (loads on ebay) then get a quote from a shop to do the job and go from there. Bare in mind that if you buy a kit, you might only use it the once because they are only suitable for 1 size. The kits include instructions and its not a difficult thing to do, esp` if you have a drill press. What is important is that you identify not only the correct thread diameter but also the thread pitch.
The kit will include a drill-bit, run it through the hole to remove all traces of the old thread. A tap, used to cut a new and oversized thread in the hole. The helicoil itself, looks like a little spring. An insertion tool, it picks up on a tang inside the helicoil and winds it into the threaded hole and a punch to break the helicoil tang off when the helicoil is in place.
Last week we had to fit these...
(http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd92/iainmcdermott/helicoils.jpg)
Into the casing of this gearbox.
(http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd92/iainmcdermott/gbox1.jpg)
The ones in my pic are M22, you will need M8 or M10.....at a guess.
Quote from: Jenya on June 03, 2009, 09:03:01 AM
Thanks guys, really apprecite it.
Are hellicoils easy enough to install on your own or is it better to hire a shop for the job? I do own a drill press. Where helicoils normally bought from locally? Or is it always cheaper and smarter to buy them from internet?
Jenya
I can do em for 10 bucks parts and labor. Over 10 helicoiled GS twins cant be wrong. $5 mail back ... sheesh ... this crap is getting to be $$$ ... maybe a little baggie ... dunno you figure the cheapest way to get to me, I'll re use it for you ...
Cool.
Buddha.