Argh!! Gear Oil Drain Hole Stripped

[pajeanka]

Man, do I have lots of sympathy for my hubby right now. Last night he was doing his first (500 BDU) oil change on his new 07 Blur.
Engine oil change & filter went easy. Hubby moved the oil drain pan around to the other side of the scooter, put the 12mm socket on the gear oil drain plug, and started turning. I'm standing there thinking . . . that should be out by now (I've done this service twice to my Buddy). The next moment my spouse realizes the drain bolt is not releasing - "lefty - loosey?" he says to me. Uh-huh. I saw him drop the socket wrench and close his eyes. He knew before he reached up with his hand to pull the plug bolt out - he had stripped the drain hole.
Now before you guys get all "I told you to take it in for the first service", let me explain that we live 4 hours from the nearest scooter shop (Scooterville in MPLS). So tough lesson learned but what I'm calling on my scooter cronies for now is some solid repair advice.
I called Scooterville this morning and they suggested trying a healacoil repair to the drain hole but they have not done one yet on a newer scooter so they're not certain about the outcome. Cost - $85 to $100 plus travel costs for four hours each way. Of course going to check the cost of replacing that part of the engine housing ($???).
So as painful as it is to confess - has anybody else stripped the threads in an oil drain hole on your scoot and had to repair it? If so - what solution did you pursue? You guys have taught me how to repair many things with the scooters. Trying to assess if this repair is out of my league or not. Thanks in advance again for helping this scooter loving and living northern plains couple.

[zuman]

Forgive me if I'm being stupid, but I assume you're not referring to the gear oil FILL plug, which is nylon and therefore highly unlikely to strip the hole threads.

[babblefish]

You don't have to take it to a scooter shop to have the threads Helicoiled. Any competent machine shop or motorcycle/auto repair shop should be able to fix it for you. You might even try going to a automatic transmission repair shop since they deal with stripped threads in aluminum transmission cases all the time.

[Racenut]

Ouch... but yeah, that drain bolt area really should have been beefed up, it's pretty sketchy even carefully using a torque wrench to spec.

Problem with a helicoil I see is getting enough threads on it. If the helicoil goes past the inside edge of the hole at all, you'll have trouble draining the oil out. There's not much oil in there to start with.

Might try a rubber expansion plug. though might be hard finding one small enough.

Otherwise, I wouldn't bother with helicoil, I'd just drill it out and retap to a bigger size. and flush with oil to get rid of metal shavings.

[justscooten]

this is not as bad as you might think . i can see a fix for this but will need a trip the hardware store . you will need a set of taps to rethread the threads to a somewhat larger size and find a new bolt witha rubber washer to act as a new drain plug that is the same thread count as the newly taped hole. might take about 30 mins

[pajeanka]

Thanks guys for the posts on this topic. I actually have thought about justscooten's suggestion to re tap the original hole to say 10mm instead of 8mm. But my hesitation is . . . have any of you looked at the area immediately around the gear oil drain hole? I'm not sure there is enough room to work with to go a 10mm threaded drain hole. Other thoughts . . .

[justscooten]

well if you can find out and im not sure myself of the type of threads they are if the npt or if they are bs . i would drill out the old threads but if you can find the right type of tap ( thread cound and type i would go one size bigger and chase the old threads. isnt the trans case made of alumanum. it is soft to say the least. if i didnt need to change my oil id changed take the drain plug in to work and see what it is i work in a mechine shop with a good tool room tool and dieshop. the guys back there would know just by looking at it.i might do this anyway.

[charlie55]

You might want to check out Autozone, NAPA, etc. I know that they sell oversized, self-tapping oil drain plugs with gaskets for automotive use. Don't know for sure whether or not they'd have something suitable for this application however.

[pajeanka]

Hey, guys,
I'm back again. Over the weekend I kept doing some web research on this topic. One of the things I read was this post on a motorcycle site:
"I've been in the auto business for over 20 yrs. You might carefully inspect the hole for good threads at a greater depth. Many times I've been able to use a longer plug in cast aluminum pans."
So after considering three different solutions to our Blur's dilema I decided to start with this one. I went out to the garage and checked the Blur's gear oil drain hole. About 50% of the threads were still in tact in the drain opening. So I went to the hardware store and found an 8mm x 1.25 x 16 bolt of the same hardness as the original drain bolt. The bolt cost $.11.
What was different is the original drain bolt plug has a flange head on it. So I took the original washer from the drain bolt (because it just fits the partial pre-formed casing around the drain opening) and then took a size larger washer and placed it first on the bolt (next to the head) and added the original washer hoping to simulate a flange type bolt head.
The additional length of this new bolt granted me another 4 threads (the same number that were stripped out in the drain hole) on the bolt (with washers installed) up in the opening. I had previously determined that there is 1 inch or a little more depth to the reservoir area directly above the drain opening so the additional threads would not be interfering with any other parts.
Installed the bolt snug (h-m-m, no torque wrench in the toolbox yet, just a socket wrench) and stood back amazed at the $.11 repair solution. I was so confident that the bolt felt secure that I went ahead and put in synthetic gear oil (I had planned on putting regular gear oil back in until I saw everything was okay). Today, 30 BDUs later, not a drop of gear oil leaking from anywhere. And my spouse is elated to be back on his scooter after a couple of days of no gear oil in his Blur.
Once again, we are so grateful for how you all always help us think through scooter repair/maintenance solutions without having a local scooter shop. Maybe you all should open a scooter shop?!

[azores]

I am glad to hear your were able to fix the problem with the drain plug. I experienced the same kind of issue when I did my first oil change and noticed that the bolt had spiral shavings on it when I loosened the bolt. Fortunately, I was able to use a copper washer on top of the original washer with a low grade threadlok. So far so good. I originally considered doing a tap/die but I am on an island with no access to decent automotive shop. Any idea what the part number is or even better mailing me the bolt

[azores]

So I went to the hardware store and found an 8mm x 1.25 x 16 bolt of the same hardness as the original drain bolt. The bolt cost $.11.

Can anyone tell me where I can purchase the mentioned bolt online? A flanged bolt would be prefered. I have tried to search but I have not come up with anything. I would just run to an auto shop but I am stuck on an island. If all else fails I will try and get someone in the states to pick me up one.

[Chilly]

Bump this thread for saving my life!

[pajeanka]

Yeap & I changed the oil on the Blur this spring and the bolt/washer combo for a oil drain plug is still working fine two and a half years later!