I stalling helicoils

[three80three]

Has anyone ever used a helicoil? 1 of the screw on the back of my 650 holley double pumper was stripped so I pulled the bowl off and the plate, bought a helicoil set and tapped the whole inserted the helicoil everything went fine up until I put the carb back together the bolt still never got a good bite on the helicoil or is it spinning in the whole? I was told to use some lock tight on the helicoil before inserting it would that help?

[crossfire84]

If you stripped all the threads from the Holley and just put the helicoil in the hole then yes it will spin. The h-coil needs threads to bite into. Did you drill and tap a new hole for the h-coil? The kit should have come with this.

[Speedbumpauto]

I'm assuming you used the proper heli-coil tap. If you tapped all the way through the main body so the coil has nothing to keep it from screwing through just like a bolt, then a dab of red Loctite will fix your problem. Make sure to let the Loctite cure before threading the screw into the hole. You can also use blue if red scares you. It does me sometimes. Seems that bowl screw is a 12-24 thread. A little bit out of the ordinary and Holley sells the specific repair kit. Did you get the correct Heli-coil kit? No offense intended.

[three80three]

Yeah I got the correct one and I can look down in the body and see the bottom I didn't drill all the way through there is a stopping point , I wasn't sure of the lock tight because I was told not to use it for this tyle of repair but then I looked on line and a few people have said to use it because it will keep the coil from spinning. Should I have left some of the coil close to the tip in order for the screw to be able to grab?

[crossfire84]

The helicoil should be below the surface.

[Speedbumpauto]

I that type of situation, I try to have the coil about 1/2 thread down in the hole and if possible, I use a countersink to put a small bevel on the heli-coil threads before inserting the coil. Sometimes, especially if the tang is still on the coil, you can work the coil back up the threads and even out of the hole. Put a little loc-tite on it and reinstall. It's a small hole but you might try some small angled needle nose pliers to reach in and grab the tang. If that's little tight you might get creative with some tweezers or something. Just thinking out of the box for ideas. At the worst, get physical with the coil at the top with a small flat screwdriver or a sharp pick. If you pry the top of the thread towards the center enough to grab it with the needle nose, you can yank the coil out of the hole(destroys it) and insert a new one.
By the way, if you do this type of repair again, you need to investigate Keen serts. They are an amazing fix. I almost never use heli-coils anymore.

[three80three]

Keen serts I heard of them but dont know where to purchase them I am able to get the coils back out by using a small screwdriver , if I remove the bowl and the plate when I screw the bolt in it gets tight but when putting the plate and bowl back on it seems like it's not grabbing the coil. Then u know the feeling of a bolt starting to get tight then gets lose, so if I pull the coils back out apply some lock tight and allow it to dry over night the bolts should grab huh?

[Speedbumpauto]

Yep, IMO. It's time serts I use. Check out this site.

http://www.threadkits.com/

[three80three]

Yeah I've seen those before didn't know what they were though but sj ce I already have the hole tapped and the helicoil should I just use some lock tight around the outside of the coil and then reinstall them if so what color lock tight to use because I keep hereing different things about the lock tight so which would be better for what I'm doing red, blue or black? I'm racing tonight and if I can't get the gas to stop dripping from the carb I'm not going anywhere .

[Speedbumpauto]

If it's me I use red. It's more permanent and viscous and you don't want those coils to come out. Some might use blue since, if you ever did want to remove the coils, it would be easier. Heli-coils will work fine, the web site is just info for future repair considerations. Another thing to do after the coil installation is make sure the carb base for the float bowl attachment is flat. They have an annoying habit of "pooching out" at the corners, usually because we are all guilty of overtightening the screws. I take a file and wrap it with some 320 or so grit sand paper and draw it across the flange of the carb. You will see shiney spots appear at the corners if it's not flat. If it's really bad, you can start with the file alone to remove material faster then finish with the paper. If you're lucky it will be almost flat when you start. Clean up after the operation with air and/or brake clean by squirting from the passages inside the carb to the flange so any junk is blown out of the flange before assembly.
Good Luck.