Stripped thread - Oil Pan

[Guest]

G'day,

I've acquired an '79 850 that I'm working my way towards starting for the first time in who knows when. Most likely greater than 10 years.

Anyway, in the process of changing the oil and the filter, I came across this:



So at some stage this has been over torqued and the thread is now stripped. Should I have a crack and fixing this myself or should I get the mobile thread repair guy to come and sort it? Thoughts?

Salty

[chuck hahn]

Take the pan off and hit an auto parts store for a +1 drain bolt. just be sure to get the new one in as straight as possible. YOU MIGHT HAVE TO REMOVE a little material to get the +1 started cutting itself in.

[Nessism]

Get self tapping "repair" drain bolt. They are tapered and designed to create threads.

[Longitudinal]

You could also heli-coil the hole. It has the virtue of being more expensive.

[chuck hahn]

I've had troubles getting them started Ed..that why I cautioned a little relief may be needed to get the +1 to grab enough to cut itself in. Guess a guy could have a shop weld it shut and just retap the original thread size. It's not critical and noones ever gonna see it.

[Longitudinal]

I've had troubles getting them started Ed..that why I cautioned a little relief may be needed to get the +1 to grab enough to cut itself in. Guess a guy could have a shop weld it shut and just retap the original thread size. It's not critical and noones ever gonna see it.

Welding shut and retapping it probably how I would do it given that I have a TIG machine but not a heli-coil of that size (probably 16 or 18mm,) but paying a shop to do the welding and tapping correctly is going to be more expensive than buying the heli-coil kit. Certainly the oversize plug is the cheapest and easiest option.

[Grimly]

Welding shut and retapping it probably how I would do it given that I have a TIG machine but not a heli-coil of that size (probably 16 or 18mm,) but paying a shop to do the welding and tapping correctly is going to be more expensive than buying the heli-coil kit. Certainly the oversize plug is the cheapest and easiest option.

14mm - useful to know if you ever lose your oil drain plug and can finish your journey on three cylinders.
Unless you have a spare sparkplug, of course.

[mrbill5491]

G'day,

I've acquired an '79 850 that I'm working my way towards starting for the first time in who knows when. Most likely greater than 10 years.

Anyway, in the process of changing the oil and the filter, I came across this:



So at some stage this has been over torqued and the thread is now stripped. Should I have a crack and fixing this myself or should I get the mobile thread repair guy to come and sort it? Thoughts?

Salty

Pull the oil pan, install a threaded steel insert, flush with the pan on the bottom. A piece of the insert will be protruding inside the pan, take a file or a dremel tool and grind down the two edges for the slots. That way your oil will drain out completely. Take the pan to an auto parts store and find a drain plug to fit with new copper crush washer. All fixed and no more worries of it stripping again. You can see the steel insert in the pic with the slots not cut out yet.

Suzie oil pan.jpg

[Wingsconsin]

I did this last weekend on my GS850GL

The +1 size was perfect - It cut easily and made a good seal -
I went for a good hot ride and it's all fixed -- now --

Autozone - Advance Auto - etc. should stock it .

[bwringer]

A coil insert will eventually back out and leak.

I always install a solid insert. When you have the oil pan off and get a look at it, there's a rather worryingly thin amount of aluminum there.

And the threads are the same as a the spark plug, so inserts and kits are pretty easy to find: 14mm x 1.25mm pitch.


Oversize plugs can get you out of a pinch fast, but they can also crack the aluminum. Most of the time it works fine if you stick with the first oversize. Fortunately, the oil pans for most GS engines are relatively easy to replace (getting the exhaust off without breaking a bolt off in the head is usually the hardest part) and easily available on fleaBay.

[ged]

I used this........................ worked great.



Great thread repair kit. Not only does it repair spark plug threads but I used it to repair my motorcycle engine oil sump plug thread. Small leak was occuring around the plug but once I used this kit no more leaks. Job well done.

[J-Dog]

I have the same problem. I bought a thread repair kit similar to ged's, because all the oversize plugs I could find had a different thread pitch (1.5 mm vs 1.25 mm).

My question is: how can I safely remove the oil pan? It's stuck on. I've got all the bolts out and the exhaust off the bike, but it's not budging. Is a putty knife the way to go?

J-Dog

[J-Dog]

I got the pan off. Used a painter's "multi-tool" (scraper + roller cleaner) and tapped it lightly with a hammer at a few spots on the rear. It popped off after about 15 whacks.