Thanks, Bugzilla, I've tapped a lot of things, especially motor mounts. I just hated to get into that one oddball metric screw that didn't match the other.

Thanks BH, a small piece of soft wire retrieved from a zip tie pulled it in nicely, without the complications of tapping it out. Now if it doesn't suck air i'm back in business. I'll probably get a chance to at least run it up sometime tomorrow.

Everything in the engine looked great except the rear bearing, there was a lot of varnish and a little rust on it, and it felt a little rough. Glad I went ahead and changed them out. I've been 33 yrs in planes and with good after run oil I have never had a bad bearing, even with sleeved engines. These heli engines run a lot harder during flight and i've put 2 real hard years on this one, so i'm trying to stay ahead of things on maintenance.

It's nice to have a lot of experience online.