spudulike

TBH, both helicoil or Timesert will do an effective job if done correctly. One bit of advice is to use a decent quality tap and usually a taper one otherwise there is a distinct chance that the tap will go in at an angle causing sealing issues. I use Volkel taps as they are decent and not OMG expensive, avoid all these cheap Chinese alternatives as the job is as strong as the quality of the receiving thread.

Not sure if I have mentioned this set before. I have only used it a handful of times, it didn't cost more than £25 but it has made some very tricky jobs sooooo much easier. It is basically for removing any bearing that has disintegrated especially ones in blind holes. Although it was cheap, it has been stonking. The latest one was removing a disintegrated wheel bearing from the Mother in Laws walker. You insert the appropriate die inside the outer bearing race, do up the top to expand it tight then use the appropriate puller to pull the offending item out.

I would imagine scotchbrite or 400 grit emery paper would be enough and just use a little GT85 or WD40 whilst rubbing......not up and down but around the bore.

Exactly on doing it yourself, I wouldn't have expected to do too much on a two year old machine, I think I must have been pretty cheap when I was doing repairs. Without seeing it and without any broken/ damaged parts....1-1.5 Hrs should have done it with parts on top.

The vertical scores look pretty deep, usually a sign of seizure but looks like the machine may have run on so possible that the ring didn't get held in the groove and continued to run. Not easy to tell to much more without removing the cylinder though. If the damage is also on the inlet side, it will be ingress of dirt or carbon damage.

Nope as per your IPL, one gasket fitted between the muffler and heat shield.

No problem, glad he got in touch.

I will text him and see what gives. He has retired and I don't think it is really him🙄...bored to feck or something similar.

Yup, it will either be petrol or oil. The colour of the plug after a bit of running may give you further info....black is rich, white or oily....oil.

I always used Vcoil from Volkel helicoil taps, good value but decent quality. Those Chinese cheap ones are....cheap but not cheerful in my experience. You would need what is referred to as a "tapered tap" as the tapered part screws in to the remains of the tap and leads the main larger tap to ream and tap the hole to the larger size to take the new helicoil. You get one chance to get it right and the taper gives you a decent chance of getting the new thread pretty square with the old one. It is a bit of a skilled job, may be one for the local old fella engineer type that just gets on with it rather than tweeting about how great he is👍

That was a while ago, saw him playing with Squeeze at "The Stables" Wavendon a few years back and he...they were fantastic.

The multimeter was more to test the new start switch block compared to the old one before fitting rather than diagnosing the damage done by "slapping a new one on" and crossing ones fingers😉 Just look at what electrical kit resides around where the smoke was coming from...coils, starter, wiring and then check it out or swap it out. You could look at what the new switch energised that it shouldn't have, doesn't sound that nice...good luck.

Get the other half to get you a decent multimeter for Christmas, I have had them since I was 12 years old...saved me a small fortune.

The "warehouse" has some pretty impressive architecture👍

Some very hard wood is best mixed with softwood or split a bit smaller, oak and laurel come to mind. As others have said, to test the wood correctly, take a big lump, split it and measure the centre. Looking at your picture again, it looks like a piece of some sort of palm...a bit weird.