hi i would like to know every body's input on striped bolts in the valve cover. its the 3 in the front closest to the handle bars. it is leaking a little bit. one bolt is ver long the other are somewhat short.what do you think the best process is?? its an 2003 400ex.

 

Heli-coil it and it will be better than new.

 

thanks for the input. how would you do this. take the head off completly or you think i could leave it on and also will the heli coil work for the long bolt?

 

I would have to see what you have and how it looks.

I don't know if you know anything about heli-coils so I will give you a little run-down on them in case you don't.

You take a drill that they give you in the kit and drill the stripped threads out. Then you take the tap that they give you in the kit and tap it for the heli-coil. Then you take the heli-coil and thread it on the insert tool and thread it into the threads you just made with the tap. You can put two or more in the same hole if it's a deep hole. After all the inserts are in place you take a punch and break the tang(s) off. You then blow the tangs out of the hole and your done.

This makes for some very strong threads for you to put your bolts into.

Let me know if you need anymore info because I used to do all the aircraft cylinder exhaust flanges with heli-coils. Someone must have gotten rich because I did about a bazillion of them.