Oil drain plug

[haywood jablome]

Ok so i go to Fays to get a new washer for my oil drain. I get to talking to the guy and telling him what is going on. He says my oil drain plug is stripped. They are talking $100 to fix it. Is this something me and someone on the board can do? That just sounds outragous!!!! Oh well. Oh yeah by the way the reason i am looking it to this is that it started to leak after i changed the oil on it Sat.... not alot but it is dripping. I would say .5 a tanle spoon a day maybe if that. HELP

[Anonymous]

Ok some questions:

Did the new washer help?
How hard did you crank it down?
As you cranked it down harder what did it feel like? (no seriously, and get your mind outta the gutter! )

If it's stripped, you might be able to rework the threadson the pan. One guy I know scored a whole new oil pan for $15... see what you can come up with.

[Nick_Ninja]

For those who are opposed to torque wrenches, a Tap and Die Set is a good addition to the tool kit

[haywood jablome]

Humm when i talked to them they said they have some sort of metal they put in there and then they re tap it. That is what fays said.

[haywood jablome]

Maybve ill go to Harbor Freight this afternoon.

[Nick_Ninja]

I'd try running a TAP through the opening first. It's a band-aid fix I know but you might try using some teflon pipe tape around the plug bolt to seal the thread path. Beats forking out $$ right now.

[Anonymous]

Of course I also have several tubes of high temp silicone, we could just goop the sh!t outta the thing!

(Might work actually, it'd be messy and you'll want to fix it the right way the next time you change your oil, but I guess it could keep the texas tea off your garage floor...)

[gixxerjarhead]

chad the drain plug needs to be torqued to 15.5 ftlb not very much very easy to stripout witch it sounds like u did if u decide to re tap it make sure u take the whloe pan off or u risk getting metal shavings in ur oil not good or u might get by for a while with some tread tape mabey?? if not see if u can get a new pan on e-bay or call all the bike salvage places in denver u might get lucky or pay the hudred bucks to let fay do it or take the pan off and take it to a machine shop and have them do it probley cheaper that way

[Anonymous]

Humm when i talked to them they said they have some sort of metal they put in there and then they re tap it. That is what fays said.

JB Weld?!?

[gixxerjarhead]

probley a helicoil spelling lol

[haywood jablome]

Will the teflon tape job work for a couple of weeks? How long will that last? Damn bike!!!

[Nick_Ninja]

Have no idea how long teflon tape would work (or even if it will handel the heat factor associated with the location of this application ).

You might call Rodger at Rocky Mountain Kawasaki (303)651-6207 and ask him:

• 1.) what he would charge to fix the problem (especially if you bring in the oil pan) and
  
  2.) if teflon tape is a good ides even in the first place.

[rocktboy]

ckl5899:
a tap and die set is on sale at harbor freight tools for some really cheap amount now. go buy it.....

for a temporary fix you'll have to find some high temp rated sealant of some sort....but that's also going to mess up the the area that you'll be fixing later.....

[Anonymous]

This might be a dumb question, but...

would a slighly larger bolt work (once it's tapped to the correct size)?

[Nick_Ninja]

It depends on the material where the drain port is located. Sometimes just running the original tap through the oriface (yes -- my mind is always in the gutter Ralph ) is enough to get the threads back on track. It usually always takes a new oil plug bolt but you can run the die on the old one just to try it. If there are crush washers involved (on the kawasaki there are) these need to be replaced as well. It is a GOOD IDEA not to perform this procedure while the oil pan is on the bike as stated in a previous post.

[DucBloke]

Tap and die only band-aids the issue by pushing the thread that's left back into the right position.

You can put a Helicoil thread repair in, but that means drilling the current thread out to a larger size and then buying the kit, which will cost you about $45-60.

Really not worth the effort. Just get them repair it. That way if they screw it up, it's their fault.