Spark Plug blew right out of the cylinder. Ya shoulda seen.

[Anonymous]

Hey Yall,

Its Louie again. Your not going to believe what happed to me tonight. I was riding down the road here in Maryland minding my own business. I had just stopped at a stop sign and was pulling out when I heard POP !!!

The bike shuddered and vibrated like it was about to explode. I was like UH OH !! I look down and there is my number 3 spark plug dangling by the plug wire like an over cooked lasagna noodle.

Yeah.... can you believe it.....It blew it right out of the cylinder. Now I pull over and shut the bike off and the first thing that came to my mind was "You F**king Idiot !! You forgot to torque the spark plugs properly. I felt it was so obivous when I look at the threads of plug and they looked all nice and clean. Then I realize I did not have my trusty tool kit. RUT ROW !! Problem just got worse.

So I do what any self respecting guy would do.... I took my shoe and sock off and used the sock to pull the plug out of the pathetic looking plug wire that kind of reminded me like a dogs tongue on a hot day. Using the sock I carefully...Ouch put the ....Ouch..... spark plug.....ouch.....back into the....damn this thing is hot.....spark plug hole and tried to thread the ....ouch you bleeping friggin bleeping little bleeper..... Cool off already why don't ya. She was getting even for that little 90 mph run I just put her through.

So anyway I started threading the .....opps I dropped it.....ouch that friggin hurts.... bleeping bleeper. Ummm it's stuck. Can anybody hear me? The spark plug is stuck. Anyone have a pair of needle nose pliers? Oh yeah I'm all alone in the middle of the country. Rut Row.

Long story short.... Several bleeps, burns, and gallon of sweat later a nice bug man came by in his truck and let me borrow his HARLEY DAVIDSON screwdriver and pliers to get the spark plug out but he did not have a socket. Talk about insult to injury. Geez. He was nice though but I just know he is going to tell all his harley cronies tomorrow. Hell I would. It happened to me and I think it's funny.

I rode her home on 3 cylinders with no problems and it even idled fine. I was impressed. Inspected the head and YUP !! The threads are stripped in the inside. RUT ROW !! The wife is ticked. It has taken my 5 years and alot of money to get her to where shes at. Please tell me to keep it and that I can send off my head somewhere to get it fixed up and maybe ported and polished why I am at it. I am flustered BIG TIME !!

At this point I wanna send it somewhere to get it rebuilt and slap it back in all souped up. I am just getting tired of spending money on her. I guess I deserve it. I paid 50 bucks for it and it was sitting in an apartment parking lot. Geez.

Later

Louie

[argonsagas]

Easy fix is available.

Visit your favourite auto store and ask about thread inserts.

Should cost about $10 to $15., including the instructions for installation.

[cbxchris]

Go to NAPA and get a heli coil kit. Take your plug to verify thread specs. Bring it up on top dead center and install the heli coil as the instructions. Put grease on the tap and drill bit when you drill and tap to keep the shavings out of the engine. Then take a shop vac and do the best you can sucking out the cylinder. I made a custom deal once with a paper towel cardboard tube. I have had to repair many kawasaki`s running unreal cylinder pressure at the drag strip...this was how we repaired them. No its not as good as taking it apart but it works. If you really want to make sure you could remove the exhaust pipes and carbs to put the vac to but I don`t think its necessary. Good Luck...its no big deal.

[Don Lobacz]

If you take your piston up to top dead center, make sure you don't drill a hole in your piston.

[cbxchris]

Yeah I should have added that for sure. The reason for TDC is just to make it easier to vacum the cylinder later and reduce the chance of something getting out in the wrong place. Actually the valves are closed BTDC and ATDC for a period...you could go that route if you are scared you may hit the piston.

[nabrams]

I once stripped the threads of the spark plug hole for my 1977 Honda XL350. I was really worried that it would be hell to repair.
I worried for nothing - it was easy to fix.
I got the spark plug hole repair kit from heli-coil, and now the bike runs even better than it did before (I guess it's got better compression now). I didn't have to remove the head or do any drilling. Use grease on the tapping tool.
The trick is to tap a couple of threads at a time, back the tap out, clean the chips off the tool, re-grease and then repeat this as many times as necessary. I don't think much of the chips (if any at all) fell into the head. The grease catches it all up pretty well if you frequently re-grease the tapping tool.