I need some help please. Here is the story

2003 954RR was running like a champ
One afternoon I pulled out of my driveway and pop, #1 spark plug comes out. I had just shifted into 2nd gear and was NOT ******* the bike at the time. Immediately turned bike off.
Threads are completely stripped on the #1 plug port

I remove the airbox, radiator and headers to save money at the shop so they just have to drop the engine, remove the head and install a helicoil

Shop ends up installing helicoils on all 4 plug ports

Shop also does an adjustment where they put in new shims for the baskets, I’m not sure exactly what you would call this. It seemed pretty straight forward when he explained what they were doing. They measured the space between this basket and the cam shaft and then adjusted the shim so the space would be within factory specs. They did this for free.

I get the bike back, install the airbox, headers and radiator.

Upon first starting the bike it back fires and sounds like crap. I turn it on and off a couple more times and it still back fires on startup and sounds like ****. Motorcycle now runs like a complete piece of crap. I take it back to shop and at this time they don’t know what the ultimate problem is.

What they do know is that the #1 and #2 cylinders are not getting combustion.
They know this because they can hold the headers on #1 and #2 and they never get hot.

Spark plugs, coil packs are working fine and producing spark.
He determined this by switching out the positions of the plugs and coil packs and always the #1 and #2 would NOT work.

The shop has not been able to check compression because he cannot get his tool into the port due to the bar that braces the frame being in the way.

So that is pretty much it, what the hell could be wrong here?!?!?!


Thank you for any insight you all can give.

 

Make sure your fuel injectors are working. The need electrical pulse to work. Could be something as simple as a connector not plugged on all the way.

Have you pulled the plugs to see if the gap got closed during re-assembly?

 

I believe the plugs are ok. And I say that because the shop advised they moved the plugs around to different cylinders and no matter which plug was in #1 and #2 they did not work. Same thing goes for the packs that you push onto the plugs. Even after moving them around #1 and #2 still do not have combustion.

When you say to check if a connector is plugged in all the way, are you referring to the connectors that go into the packs ontop of the plugs?

 

I'm referring to the fuel injector plugs and the main plug that plugs the FI harness into the main harness. Anything like a bent pin, broken wire, or loose connector can do this. Basically, check anything that was mover around with all the work.

You have spark there, move on.
Do not assume the plugs are not damaged until you see them for yourself. You dont want to spend all the time trying to figure this out, just to find a bad plug.
The next step is to check valves, compression, and cam timing...

 

is it possible they plugged the spark ignitors in wrong? #1 and #2 are easy to get confused as the fan plug on that sub-wiring harness comes in between them. that's what it sounds like to me. i'd switch the plugs on the coils for #1 and #2 and see if that works first. real easy and real simple. we can go from there. that would definitely make those cyls misfire. now ignition breaks the ground, not the hot, so they're the odd colored wires. the one on cylinder #1 should be the plug with 2 wires :blue w/black stripe wire and black w/ white stripe wire and #2 cylinder should be the plug with 2 wires : yellow w/ grey dot wire and black w/white stripe wire


as far as the shims under the bucket - that's just a simple valve adjustment. you wouldn't (or i guess shouldn't) notice anything there.

 

If your FI plugs check out, drop the engine and do a leak down and compression check. Also, make sure the timing is correct by checking your timing marks.

 

Thank you all so much for the recommendations. Now I just need to figure out how to approach this with the mechanic so he doesn't get pissed at me for trying to do his job. He has had my motorcycle for 2 months now for what was supposed to be a 2-3 hour job. It has just been one little mess up after another. Now, because he is looking at the bike for free to figure out what is wrong it is not a priority to him. It's a two man shop and he just checks on my bike at random. I know his shop is what messed things up and should fix it but he could take the stance that because I brought him the bike pretty much tore down for him to remove the head that maybe the bike was messed up prior of I did it somehow. I just want him to do the right thing and soon. A couple friends in town believe that he may have bent the valves. I'm really hoping that isn't the case. But, instead of having the owner and trained/seasoned mechanic do the work he allowed his helper/just learning for the past year to do it. I'm losing confidence in this place by the day. Weather in Florida has been amazing lately as well. Not too cold and not too hot.

Anyways, thank you again for the suggestions. I will bring them up to him when I make my weekly phone call to find out what is going on.

 

Well, here is the latest update. After the shop has had the bike for the past almost 3 weeks they were able to get cylinder #2 firing. He said something about having some wires flip flopped. I was on a cell phone and didn't quite get what he was saying. Honestly I was just happy to hear he had another cylinder firing. Now he just needs to get #1 going and I should be on the road. Supposedly, they are removing the heads and checking to make sure they did the valve adjustments correctly. Was supposed to hear from them today but that didn't happen. Won't know what is going on till maybe Tuesday.

 

told ya...


edit - you should look for a new shop

 

I know you, the original poster, probably don't know...but does anyone have any thoughts on why the threads were shot on that spark plug and IF the rest of the plug holes were really actually in need of helicoil repair?

For sure, get a new mechanic...I wouldn't have a guy like that messing around with the valves and head on any bike I owned...He sounds not very good at his job and that type of work is pretty exacting....Getting something really wrong in the valve train could ruin the motor....