Bought the bike with a knocking sound, turns out, the bolts for one cam gear backed out and dropped the gear. I pulled the head, everything was fine. Now for the problem. When I was putting it all back together, I couldn't get it to time right as per the manual. Long story longer, I stripped the threads on one of the cam holder(the head side). Also, one of the spark plug holes was stripped beforw I got. My question is, how have you guys delt with a problem like this? And what is the best way to get the cams in the right position? Thanks in advance.

 

Nothing? Come on guys, help a guy out.

 

Kind of hard to understand what you're talking about. Are you talking about one of the bolts that goes in the cam towers? What's the "cam holder"? And since everything you're talking about is in the head, "head side" isn't helpful. Can you post some pictures? That should make it much easier to give you some help. Are you talking about the bolt that you turn the crank with or something?


As far as spark plugs, they make a specific helicoil for spark plug holes. Do some research on it. You're certainly not the first person that has had to deal with it. I haven't - yet... knock on wood. But it's not an uncommon problem. You need to make sure you can get something that will a) do the job (because of where it's at - the top of the compression chamber) and b) will utilize your spark plug.

 

If by "cam tower" you mean "cam cap", then yes. And what I mean is, where the bolt slides through and threads into the head.I would post pics, but my phone sucks, and my computer is down.

 

How bad is it stripped? How deep does the bolt go? It may be a thing where a longer bolt can go into it or if it's not too badly stripped, running a tap back through it might bring it back.

If none of that works, you can helicoil it, or depending on how much material is around it - you can go a size up on a bolt - drill and tap it. You'd just have to be EXTREMELY careful to keep everything clean from aluminum shavings.


It just depends.

 

I have the head off of it now, so no worries (major ones). I can run the bolt into it and it does catch threads, just won't tighten down. I will try a longer bolt, then try re tapping. Helicoil will be last resort. Thanks for the pointers. Any tips on cam timing?

 

Haven't done it on a 900rr before, but on the 954 - keep the cam chain tensioner off, and while you have to have the cam guides in, you don't have to have them mounted, they can hang down by the crank shaft, and it should give you enough room to be able to jump the teeth of the cam gears and crank when you have to.

Moving the cams is the hardest, so make sure you line them up correctly and make your really minor adjustments using the crank while you're trying to get the chain onto the teeth and whatnot.

Just go slow. It's a tight fit even with the guides off the mounts and the tensioner out...

 

Great thanks. This is by far the hardest timing job I've done in a long time

 

Yeah, it's not like a car or some other bikes. When you think about the rpms that these motors churn and the limited size - it is a hard job.

Once you've done it on a DOHC I4 motor, I think you'll be able to do it pretty easy. I've had to do it 3x on a 954 - and there is a serious learning curve to it. Don't be afraid to walk away for a few minutes.

Also post some pictures of the head repair. That'd be a very useful pictorial for some others on the forum.

 

Sure. If I can get my computer to work proper, I will definitely post pics.
Thanks for the advise!
Definitely aint no hinda car, I can do a timing belt in a couple hours on them! Haha