Help - Spark Plug wont go back in

[perry]

Hey people,
My quad wouldnt start and I gently took the spark plug out. I inspected it and decided to put a new one in. When I went to put the new on back in, I tightened it by hand, and it stopped less than two - three turns into the engine. I think there might be dried mud in the thread or something because I never tightened it with the tool. I just did it by hand. Could I have screwed up the thread on the way out? I have gas tank off and it looks like there is some debris on the thread. Am currently trying to clean it out, but It still wont tighten past 2-3 turns. Afraid to use wrench to try and force it in.

What do I do, and if there is something wrong with my thread, how much $ am I looking at?

Please help me!!!!!!!!

[cals400ex]

its always best to clean your head off before changing the plug. you do not want mud down there. if that gets on your piston/cylinder wall, it won't be good. i would take the plug out and make sure you just were not skrewing it in sideways or something. the plug is hard to get back in if you have never done it before. if you stripped it out, it may be time to buy a new head!!! :eek2:

[wilkin250r]

You are in a pretty ugly situation.

Fixing the threads is pretty easy, but it causes other problems...

You can get a tap (for something that big, you may need to special order it) and clean up the threads, but that will cause metal shavings to fall into your cylinder, and no amount of compressed air will get them all out. If you run it with those shaving in there, you will scratch up your cylinder wall and screw everything up. Then you'll need a complete top-end rebuild.

You'll probably have to remove the cylinder head to fix your problem.

[perry]

There was mud on the threads so I called a buddy of mine and he suggested that just use a little force. After screwing in plug with tool and unscrewing several times, I finally put small amount of lube on plug thread. I screwed in a few times and back out, and the last time it seated by hand. Made a small turn with tool after that and it fired right up. I also took a shop vac and tube and put it in head to remove any dirt/filings.
My buddy says it because my quad is only two weeks old, that combined wih the mud caused it to be hard to screw in. He says that some new engines are like that.
At any rate, it didnt appear to be crossthreaded and it runs better now that it did before.

Thoughts or comments?

Mike

[wilkin250r]

If any mud or small rocks fell into the cylinder, it could cause problems. Since you've already started it up, it's too late to do anything about it.

Chances are, you'll be ok. However, I'd check the compression in a week or two, just to make sure any mud or small rocks didn't get in and score the cylinder wall.

[perry]

How do I check the compression?

[Glamis400ex]

next time use a little anti-seize on the threads and you wont have caked on mud on the threads.

Glamis