I screwed up :(

[Bamboozle]

I seem to have screwed up pretty badly and am in need of advice.

In preparation for this riding season I decided to replace the oil filter cover studs on my 1980 GS550 E that the previous owner stripped. I was able to get two of them out quite easily but the third one fought me for days. I tried heat, an impact driver, penetrating lubricant, tapping it with a hammer, every thing I could find and my buddies to think of I tried. Eventually the stud snapped and I figured its time to get out the bolt extractor set. I've had luck with extracting bolts in the past but not this time. This time the extractor snapped and was lodged in the broken stud. I picked up some small cobalt drill bits to drill out the hardened bolt extractor and the rest of the broken stud but those didn't seem to work either. I moved on to my last ditch effort, grinding as much out as possible with a diamond tip grinding bit for my dremel. This did the trick and I was eventually able to redrill the hole and insert a helicoil. Unfortunately I suck and caused some damage with the grinding bit causing me to drill crooked and a bit off the mark. This meant that the new stud I had to replace the old one was crooked. With some finagling, and to my great relief, I was able to get the cover to slid on and bolted down with the acorn studs. I filled it up with oil and it wasn't leaking! I started the bike and a nice thin stream of oil began pooling on the floor of my garage.

I'm at a loss for what I should try next. I was thinking of removing the stud and filling the hole with silicone and putting a bead of silicone around the filter cover and just using the other 2 studs to tighten the cover down but I'm not sure that will work.

Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.

 

[loud et]

I would try to remove the cover and reinstall. Maybe the rubber gasket got out of the groove.
Another option is to put a regular nut (not the acorn nut) on the very end of the stud and give it a whack with a hammer to straighten it out. It's a bit risky but a few smooth and gentle walks could bring it into alignment. It could also snap but most likely won't especially if you can use some heat like a propane or map gas torch.
Or you may have to remove the helical and use a metal and oil friendly epoxy and epoxy a stud in straight.

Weigh all your options and think it all over.
Oil filter covers don't require a lot of torque so whatever should work. Just go easy on it you savage! Lol

Drilling all crooked and sh*t! Haha
Trust me I feel your pain, I almost had a bad experience with 2 exhaust stud helicoils recently.....

 

[Bamboozle]

Gentle whacks with a hammer is how I was able to get the filter cover on with the crooked stud. I was thinking I could put the cover on with the 2 studs and try to drill through the open cover hole. I just can't figure out how to do so without screwing up the cover or making the stud hole even worse.

 

[wymple]

My son had a hole messed up on an exhaust. He drilled it out as you did, then welded the hole back in with aluminum and redrilled. It's holding fine. If that will hold something like an exhaust, it should hold a simple filter cover.

 

[Brendan W]

One of the fasteners on my filter cover has ' delicate ' threads. I'm fairly sure it isn't doing much but the other two are enough to seal it.
Maybe the o-ring is out of it's seat or maybe the crooked stud is pinching the cover not letting it sit flat and letting the o-ring see daylight.

 

[1948man]

Could you wallow out the hole in the cover so the stud passes thru a little easier and doesn't cause the cover to sit crooked? Shouldn't hurt since the little gasket in the groove does all the sealing.

 

[JTGS850GL]

Do as others have suggested and first verify that the o-ring seal is in place and not pinched. You also need to verify that the grinding you did, didn't leave you with irregular surface.

 

[dorkburger]

Just a thought. Did the acorn nut bottom (top?) out on the stud and not clamp the cover properly?

 

[one_civic]

you could also remove the stud and if there's enough meat, drill and tap to the next largest stud which I believe is an 8mm