My 04 Beartracker developed a small oil leak around the valve cover a few weeks ago. No big deal, I figured. I'll pop the cover off, replace the O-ring, or put some sealant around the edges and it'll be good as new.

Well - I took the bolts out and all 3 had helicoils wrapped around them. I thought this was weird. Anyway, I put everything back together and the leak was still present - and now the bolts wouldn't tighten anymore. I tried replacing the helicoils and that didn't help. I've since gone out and bought a thread repair kit to clean out and replace the threads in each hole properly.

So my big problem now - the front vertical beam on the frame is smack-dab in front of 2 of the holes, making it basically impossible to get a drill or tap in straight to clean out the hole and install the helicoil. I'm pretty stuck right now, as I obviously can't use the atv until I can get this fixed, but I don't have the space necessary to fix it!

Has anyone had any sort of a similar issue with any model of atv? If so, how did you resolve the situation? The only 2 options I can think of right now are to unbolt the entire engine and see if I can't shift it an inch or two to one side, which is all I'd need in order to get the space I'd need. Or unbolt the cylinder head and shift it the same way.
Unbolting the engine is easy enough, but it's wedged in so tight to the brackets that I still can't move it.
Unbolting the cylinder head scares me. I simply don't know what I'm doing or what I could screw up. Maybe I'm wrong, but it strikes me as a move that could turn out to be a really bad idea.

Anyway - any help is appreciated. I figure someone out there has had to deal with doing work in tight spaces on their atv, so maybe they've got some suggestions for me!

-Paul