rockercover bolts repair

[lmao_37]

i was wondering if they have had the same trouble as i had with my 98 b6 well the rocker cover bolts where you do the valve timeing on mine all the threads on the cam retainers worn or striped well mine were striped badly so when i first did the valve timing they wouldnt tighten up  properly well i fixed mine and all it cost me was 30 pounds for the bits and some brains and a steady hand,

the hardest part to get is the right pitch tap as the thread on the rocker cover hex bolts is m7 1mm pitch which i sourced from a little back street tool shop

well take each cam retainer off in turn and drill to an m8.5 and tap to m10 then screw an piece of m10 aluminum threaded bar in and tighten in with 2 lock nuts to tighten up hand tight then saw it to length now this is where it gets tricky centre punch the top in the centre (must be dead centre) then pilot drill with a 2mm drill but dont drill right through the end i measured the length of the bolt with a micrometer and then drilled just over length then drill to 6mm then tap to m7by 1mm pitch and then test the rockercover bolt to make sure it works then refit the cam retainer to cam and remove the next one and follow these steps again

well iam trained in mechinical engineering and you do need to have a good bit of experiance to do this as they are easy to break and you cant buy the replacement cam retainers you have to buy the whole cyclinder head and i phoned a company to find out how much they would cost for them to do and it was cheaper to do myself so i put this as a little bit of a warning if your not mechanicly minded get someone else to do it but it worked for me  

[Red01]

Wouldn't a simple, basic, Heli-Coil repair fix your problem?
Sounds like a complex answer to a simple question, unless I'm missing something here.

Should you ever do it one step worse and crack the cover retainer's bore in the cam bearing cap, check out this thread for a creative fix without swapping the head.

http://forums.banditalley.net/viewtopic.php?t=1498

[lmao_37]

i tried to get  helicoil but i couldnt get hold of it in 7mm also helicoil isnt strong enough for repeated useage also would you trust helicoil to hold on your entire rocker cover bet your boots i wouldnt i had already thought of that idea but i decided to a proper fix on it instead of a bodge job

also i forgot to mention iam an qualified engineer i work in manufacture and production engineering and also qualified vehicle engineer so 4 me fixin it wasnt a problem but it worked alot better than a bodge as it uses all the same parts without having to weaken the existing cam retainers as removing the exisiting rockercover bolt retainer could work harden the alumimum and the load the cams are under could force  the cam retainer fail under load and write off the top end of the engine

i did look at the link you put up but i did the job last year and forgot to post this fix and my engine has done 20.000 miles since i fixed it without any probs and have done the valve clearances every 4000 miles when i service my engine and thats good enough 4 me

[Red01]

Hmmm... we don't have any problems with steel threaded inserts in aluminum pieces where I work - and we have a lot of aluminum components threaded like that. Considering our products are used for decades, I'm sure this was an engineering consideration.

I wouldn't have a problem using a Heli-Coil if I found the one that fit.

And you didn't forget to mention you're an engineer  

I don't have a degree in it. Just ~40 years of mechanical experience... and I have to review professional engineer's fixes to see if I think they meet quality & FAA standards.

BTW - What are you using to keep your oversize threaded rod in place so it doesn't want to unscrew instead of the rocker bolt? Just curious.

There's always the way referred to in the thread I linked, too.

[PitterB4]

FWIW - Heli-Coil does make a 7/1.  My left-front cam cover is living proof.

[Bob Holland]

all of my cam caps are heli coiled. The heli coil is stronger than the original thread.

[lmao_37]

when i fitted the outsized threaded rod i put 2 locknuts on the end of it and used a torque wrench to tighten to 15lbs ft also used loktight i thought about using steel outsized threaded rod but as i was drilling it out cam retainer quite a bit i didnt want to split the the aluminum as i was thinking about the rate of expansion/contraction with the heat from the engine might have been a little to much for the cam retainer to be honest iam a little bit of a perfectionist and i do a lot of miles on the bike and i didnt wana be on the road 200 miles from home and the top end fails thats also why i fixed it the way i did. also as i service the bike myself i did fix that if need be i can remove the repair and fix it again if it ever needs sorting again

the thing that got me when i first removed the rocker cover the 2 lug bolts on the front and back of the engine were also damaged and so were the 4 banjo bolts they were all over tightened and had stretched threads according to the service history the bike was serviced in suzuki dealerships i did buy the bike with 23.000 on it now has 50.000ish on it and some of the work that has been done on the bike is questionable  

as all eight cam retainers were damaged i wouldnt replace all eight with helicoil also were i live the parts shops stock all most used helicoil are stocked 7mm isnt stocked as it is not used often if it had only been one cam retainer i would have waited for the shop to get it in but all 8 were really bad on 2 of the outside cam retainers there was no evidance that it had been threaded all they were compleatly stripped and the bolts were put in with instant gasket or chemical metal to stop them falling out it needed to be fixed properly to be honest when i discovered this i wasnt happy at all the 3 months warreanty had just expired

i didnt say they didnt make a 7mm helicoil i just couldnt get hold of any

[Daytona]

Hey lmao_37 Thank you for taking the time to post your repair technique. It gives a diff way it can be done! Why do these strip? Over torque, x threading or just too cheezy in the first place!!    

[lmao_37]

they are really cheezy well the could have made the cam retainers out of steel and have shell bearings in it would have made it 100% better and easyier to replace the cam bearings when they get worn.

the other thing was i had to repair the banjo bolt threads in the cyclinder head and the lug bolt threads because they were damaged and stretched  so i bought a tap n die set with the right size/pitch taps in i was seriously looking at replacing the cyclinder head till i found out how much one cost from some bike scrap dealers so the easyier option was to do the repair the way i did as i couldnt get hold of any helicoils also when i said too the suzuki dealers near me why i wanted them they said i was mad to fix it like that but also they were trying to sell me a new cyclinder head at 600 pounds well its fixed now and i have no oil leaks at the top end also the rocker cover is torqued up to the right setting  


the other thing how many miles do you all do on your bikes iam using mine everyday winter and summer and it does alot of milage so the repair i did had to last and i wanted it to last the life of the engine as i said earlyer i have done 20.000 miles on since i fixed it since march/april 2004  and i do love to ride my bandit wouldnt be without it now they are great fun to ride

[Daytona]

There was a post on total miles here somewhere! I have almost 40000 miles on my 98 B12 which i got in 2000... Yes i use it all year long too. Now i've heard of folks having twice that on B12's with allmost no troubles!!  

[lmao_37]

thats alot of miles on a not so old machine where i live in the uk i go on ride outs and stop at bikers cafe's and i have talked to bikers there and you would be lucky to find a bike some days that have done more that 10.000 some people only use there bikes on sundays all they wana do is wash n polish and worship there bikes and they hate to take them out in the rain my bike has high milage because i enjoy riding it not looking at it lol

i love to    fun at sunday riders

[Red01]

I bought my bike used with 590 miles on it. It has >40K now. I've done all the service & other work on it (except tire mounting/balancing) since the purchase. I ride year-round, but not a lot of miles in the winter, only when it's nice and no risk of ice.

[lmao_37]

i do all my own sevicing to well i bought a kawaski new and all i had the whole 18 months i owned it was trouble, it was a kmx125 i bought to do my test on and the list of parts it had was amazing it had 86 hours of warrenty work done, i already did all my own seviceing but that bike  i needed the stamp in the book so i paid for someone else to do and when i got it back the bike never ran right or seem to any how the worst thing was when i picked the bike up from the dealership the very day i paid for it i found it wasnt put together right  the wireing loom on the left hand handle bar were all wrapped up in the clutch cable so every time i pulled the brakes it pulled left i had the bike an hour b4 it had to go back to the dealers for repair to the wireing loom  

the best thing i ever did was part ex it for my bandit lol  
got a really good price for the kmx to well the only thing i get some one else to do is the tyres to but when i go to the tyre shop i take the wheels of and refit them to as i like to reset my brakes (i had them refit the wheels once and the front brakes didnt seem right the brakes were working on one brake pad only) they never centred the calipers b4 tightening the the brake caliper bolts first

well iam lucky where i live we have a good local counsil they grit the road if there is even a chance of ice so its no biggy to ride all year round just need to keep your wits up when you ride lol