[gmcdona1]

I was riding my 929 today on the freeway and all of a sudden it starting running really rough and making a lot of noise. Pulled over and could see one of the spark plug connections bouncing up and down on top of the engine. I am assuming the plug has come, which I am assuming has to be bad. I haven't had time to take it out yet. Has anyone seen a similar issue? Any ideas on how bad this is going to be?

[bladeracer]

If the plug has blown out of the head you will have to Helicoil the head.
You can normally do them without pulling the head off but I'd be surprised if you can get in there on the 929 due to the crossbrace in the frame. You _might_ be able to tap it but I doubt you'd be able to break off the tail afterwards.
You can either pull the motor and try doing the job without removing the head - keeping in mind that's there's still a chance you'll have to pull the head anyway - or leave the engine in and just pull the head off.
If you do it on the engine use grease on the tap to catch the swarf and then blow out the cylinder with air. Be very careful not to drop the tail into the cylinder when you break it off the coil.

[dern]

Same thing happened to mine, it blew out the left most plug as you sit on the bike.

I decided to go the whole hog and remove the engine, take off the head and get an engineering firm to fit a threaded insert. For me the risk of getting swarf in the engine was way too high to consider doing it with the head on. Having taken the head off and seeing how easy it is to get little pieces of carbon down the side of the pistons there's no way I'd risk it with metal.

If you do decide to do this with the head on then I can't believe that there's enough room to do the job with the engine in the frame.

The big work is getting the engine out of the bike as the bike is pretty much all bolted to the engine. I'd never done it before so just took loads of digital pictures and used them to rebuild. I also used the sequence in the workshop manual.

Once the engine is out taking the head off is relatively straightforward. Just follow the workshop manual and get a sectioned box (sewing, collecting, hobby) to keep all the shims and buckets in order. Then you can do the job much more easily or get a engine shop to do an insert for you.

Putting it all back together is easy enough with a new headgasket, following the bolt tightening instructions and then following the workshop manual and the photos you took.

It took me a couple of weekends all in all. I spent the usual on service items (you also have the bonus of being able to check your valve clearances as you build the motor back up) and the only extra from memory was the head gasket which wasn't expensive.

Good luck,

Mark

[gmcdona1]

Thanks for the reply, I think I will definitely take the engine out. The digital camera is a great idea. I probably can't get started until Monday, I will keep you posted on how it goes.

[speed929]

i have the same problem to me looks ,like would be easier to remove the frame frame it only has 4bolts attached to engine and there is few more for the rear of frame i think it might work and is gonna be a lot easier than taking down the engine

[dern]

Originally Posted by speed929

i have the same problem to me looks ,like would be easier to remove the frame frame it only has 4bolts attached to engine and there is few more for the rear of frame i think it might work and is gonna be a lot easier than taking down the engine

Interesting idea, let us know how you get on with it. It strikes me that you're swapping removing the rear suspension from the engine for the front but you might be right in that you have to take less stuff off.

[speed929]

i just did it eyesterday.was very easy. i didn,t remove the frame
just remove the 4bolts 2each side,remove 8bolts for rear subframe and(4 each side) remove the bolt on the bottom that goes all the way from left to right thru the engine,leave the shock attached,then i,ve disconected clutch cable and some other wiring so i can be able to lift it off hanging on a beam in my house with forks,tire and everything up in the air looked funny but it worked very well no head off no engine down.for the helicoil did not work for me make it worst.looks i could not screw the coil all the way down so i started tightening the spark plug and i broke the spakplug thread iside.well got it out of there with drilling and those screw extractors pain in the a..s.the i bought a time sert kit special for deep holes worked just fine,back on the road .good luck with the repair.hope you get it done soon

[speed929]

forgot to say i blocked the engine from the bottom so it don put much pressure on the rest of the bolts left.

[wil2444]

I helicoiled an R1 a couple of years ago. I greased up the tap and stuck it on the end of a socket extension bar as the hole was too deep to take a regular tap wrench. When it came to insert the helicoil spring I tied a piece of strong thread to the tang (the bit in the middle that you knock out) and put a dab of superglue on the knot. I ran the thread up the middle of the helicoil spring and gently wound it into the hole. I took some deep breaths knocked the tang into the bore (and gently (with fingers crossed) pulled on the thread and Voila the tang was on the end. Sounds like a fairy tale but it worked for me, hope this helps.

[gmcdona1]

Well, it turned out I was lucky. I had removed the gas tank and air cleaner assemblies. The first thing I did was check the other spark plugs to make sure they were tight. They were all several turns loose. So, I torqued them correctly. Then, like the previous post, I took a few deep breaths, and used a thread chaser on the hole that had lost the plug. I then was able to insert the plug, and it felt like it bit pretty well. Also, I was able to torque it down correctly. I was then back on the road (after attaching the MAPS sensor vacuum line that I had forgotten to connect).

I think I will check it in a week or so to make sure the plugs are still tight.

Thanks for all of your posts