Originally Posted by
Andrew R Stewart
Yes, many shops have them. Dan's offer at $25 is a fair one, and I suspect he will do a good job. When I was at Allstar in Raleigh NC the other mechanic, Terry, was pretty good doing this repair. I wasn't, although the few I've done have not had issues. I just never got the first and last coil of the insert to nicely seat/stay smooth WRT the crank arm's face. I have considered this repair a last resort one because of that (as well as it's a no reversing repair, there's no going back). If a replacement arm is available I consider that to be the better path to take. Andy
...if you're talking about the threadserts (not helicoils) that are now being sold and used (It's a little sheet metal thingie, formed for both right and left hand threads), the trick is to use an old pedal spindle to set the threadsert into the arm with red Loctite to hold it in place. Once the Loctite has had a chance to set up, file or grind off any excess on the back, and then remove the dummy pedal spindle.
I think you can still get RH threaded spark plug helicoils in the correct size and threading for this, but as far as I know, nobody is making and selling the LH ones any more. Just the threadserts.