'79 850 Cam tensioner bolt hole partially stripped

[Guest]

Hi, "79 GS 850

I was putting my cam chain tensioner back on the bike (after putting in new O-rings etc in the tensioner), when I stripped out the first two or three threads of the upper right bolt hole where the tensioner is mounted to the block. Farther into the hole the threads are good.

This is the threaded hole for the smallest bolt (all three mounting bolts are different 6mm sizes). The little bolt will still grab but there isn't enough thread left to be reliable.

Is helicoil the way to go here? Any other suggestions?

[Jethro]

Definitely helicoil. Your only two other reasonable options are drilling and tapping a larger bolt (which would require drilling a larger hole in the cam chain tensioner mount), or cold welding a stud in the stripped hole.

Go with a helicoil.

[KEITH KRAUSE]

If only the first 2-3 threads are stripped, why not a longer bolt?
If you clean up the threads so the new bolt will go past the damaged threads and bite into the good threads and the hole is deep enough for a longer bolt, why not?

[mark]

Thanks guys. I guess I could try a longer bolt and see what happens. Won't be any worse off than I am now if the rest pull out. I don't know much about this helicoil thing either, but from looking at other posts can probably pull it off if I'm not comfortable with a longer bolt.

[Buffalo Breath]

stripper

longer bolt as KK says but if its a blind hole measure the depth first, are you sure it has the correct bolts to start with

[mark]

Yeah its wierd how the "stock" bolt (I assume its stock, but might be a false assumption) seems a little short. I bought an allen head bolt that was the same size, if I had looked at the hole rather than the bolt I pulled out of there maybe I might have avoided this.