helicoil

[swas]

Alright all,
After trying to cure a tappet block leak for a while, what i was waiting to happen, has,the threads have stripped from one bolt hole in the cam chest,have only torqued up to the Harley manual specs. Have had a look on the interweb and helicoil seems to be the option,anybody done this?
Doesnt seem to be a problem and the 1/4"x20 tpi inserts are nay bother to get hold of, am unsure of the length tho,with about 1/2" of thread to play with in the cam chest will the inserts length be ok and go straight in or will they need cutting to length needed? Or, is there any other stuff to re-thread with,(you might have stuff in the USA that isnt know over here)or are there inserts that cut their own thread when installing instead of drilling then running a tap through.
Ta very much
Cheers

[Tbones]

The helicoil will work just fine for your thread repair.  The problem will be which hole you need to repair.  If it's one of the back two holes for the tappet block you'll probably have to remove the head and cylinder so you can get a straight angle to the hole in order to drill and re-tap the hole.  The helicoil has a small tip in the bottom of it that is used by the installer to screw the helicoil into the threaded hole.  Make sure you screw the helicoil into the hole until the last thread on the coil is just below the surface of the hole, then you remove the inserting tool and break off that lil tip...  Goodluck...  Timesert makes some good inserts too...  You can google search Timesert... 

[swas]

Tbones,cheers for that,much appreciated.Yeah got the head and cylinder off and ready,saw the Timesert things on the web,cant find anywhere that supplies them over here yet ,plenty have helicoil ,never used them before tho so wanted to hear experience talking.
Thanks mate.