Transmission Drain Plug

[mall0y]

Hey guys, today when I went to change the oil in my Banshee I started to loosen the drain plug bolt. It was pretty hard to turn and I needed to use a wrench the whole time to back it out. When I took it off and started to let the oil drain I looked at the bolt and noticed that there were actually pieces of metal stuck in the threads of the bolt. My first thought was that I just stripped the bolt itself but upon further inspection I found that the threads in the bottom of the case were stripped. I thought up of all the possible solutions and I came up with drill the hole out and tap it for a larger bolt, buy a helicoil and fix it with that, or take it to a shop and have them deal with the mess. I narrowed it down to the helicoil or take it to a shop, but if I could, I'd rather save some money and helicoil it myself. My question is, how much disassembly of the engine is required if I was to fix it myself using a helicoil? Would I have to split the cases or anything like that? Also, if any of you guy had this happen to you and you took it to a shop, how much did it cost?

 

Thanks

Edited August 6, 2006 by mall0y

[watkins]

Been there and it suxs. You really need to split your cases to do this right; Regardless of whether or not you put it helicoil in or just tap new threads you will have to drill out the exisiting threads so that means metal in your tranny, which is not good. My suggestion is to just by a bunch of rubber expanding drain plus from the autoparts store and use them until you have a real reason to split those cases. I used a rubber drain plug an entire season without issues, just throw it away after every oil change and use a new one.

[racer]

drill very slowly with the motor still in the bike. use a vacuum to collect chips as they come off the bit, repeat for the tap. then flush the case with cheapo oil a few times and bang youre done.

 

if you just brought it in to the service department they would ask you how much you wanted to spend, and that would be the deciding factor on whether or not they split the cases. labor is expensive and a job that like would take a few hours.

[mall0y]

Alright thanks for the help guys. If I was to do it myself do you think it would be easier to drain all of the gas out and tip it back on the grab bar, then drill out the hole and use the vacuum like you guys said? I'm pretty mechanically inclined and have fixed stripped bolts and stuff like this before but this is the first time I'm attempting to do it on something this valuable. I wouldn't want to mess anything up. Any other suggestions?

 

Thanks.

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i done a similar rig with a 4 poke warrior , i welded a bigger rench on the bottom and took it off like that lol.

[FireHead]

As an extra precaution, when you are tapping for the Helicoil, dip the tap in grease. That will stop the chips from getting too far. This also works for the drill as long as you slow. You still would need to flush you motor out with cheap oil. :baseball_mitt:

[addicted]

Alright thanks for the help guys. If I was to do it myself do you think it would be easier to drain all of the gas out and tip it back on the grab bar, then drill out the hole and use the vacuum like you guys said? I'm pretty mechanically inclined and have fixed stripped bolts and stuff like this before but this is the first time I'm attempting to do it on something this valuable. I wouldn't want to mess anything up. Any other suggestions?

 

Thanks.

I would not tip it up. The shavings will fall to the bottom and be much harder to vacume out. I would split the cases and do it right if it were me. You can have it out, fixed, and back in in one short day. Doesn't seem worth the risk.

[BigRed350x]

You can also use diesel to flush the tranny. Its a lot thinner than oil and will flow throuhg better. We use it whenever we get a new shee before we split cases. Gets rid of oil residue on everything though so make sure you fill up up with oil, run it down the road once or twice then change it out for some new oil.

[FireHead]

You can also use diesel to flush the tranny. Its a lot thinner than oil and will flow throuhg better. We use it whenever we get a new shee before we split cases. Gets rid of oil residue on everything though so make sure you fill up up with oil, run it down the road once or twice then change it out for some new oil.

 

That's a good idea. I had never thought of going that.

[mall0y]

well guys, the next chance I get I'm going to give the helicoil a shot. I really dont have time to split the cases. If I was going to do that I would rebuild the whole thing anyway, which I dont have money for right now. So, I'm going to give it a shot with the motor still in the bike. I figgure that if I flush the tranny out with diesel it should get most of the shavings out. I'm not too fond of banshee transmissions but I doubt a little flake of aluminum will cause any damage to steel gears. So I think I'm going to take my chances. Do you guys think it'll turn out alrigth doing it like this?

[mall0y]

Ok guys, good news, everything came in and i am going to give this a shot this weekend. I have one more question however. When i drill and tap the hole and put the helicoil insert in, what do i do with that little metal tab that is still on the Helicoil? the instructions say to tap it off with a punch but i dont want that floating around in my case when i break it off. So, does anyone know how to break this little tab off without loosing it in the case or should i just leave it in there? Thanks

[Ducman]

Ok guys, good news, everything came in and i am going to give this a shot this weekend. I have one more question however. When i drill and tap the hole and put the helicoil insert in, what do i do with that little metal tab that is still on the Helicoil? the instructions say to tap it off with a punch but i dont want that floating around in my case when i break it off. So, does anyone know how to break this little tab off without loosing it in the case or should i just leave it in there? Thanks

 

Before you go the helicoil route you may want to just do what I did. I just went through this a couple of weeks ago. I got a 14mm +1 oversize self tapping drain plug. Cost $3.99 at a Franklin auto parts and they had it in stock. A little grease in the flutted part of the plug to catch the shavings, wich there were very little, and little flush and clean up, and done. Very easy and worked like a charm. Took all of 10 minutes and the new drain plug works great.

[Dr. Overkill]

Last time I had a stripped spark plug boss in a VW head, the shop said don't even go *near* a helicoil. The hot item is the Timesert. I had them install it, and it was smooth sailing ever after.

 

http://www.timesert.com/

 

_dennis

[mall0y]

Before you go the helicoil route you may want to just do what I did. I just went through this a couple of weeks ago. I got a 14mm +1 oversize self tapping drain plug. Cost $3.99 at a Franklin auto parts and they had it in stock. A little grease in the flutted part of the plug to catch the shavings, wich there were very little, and little flush and clean up, and done. Very easy and worked like a charm. Took all of 10 minutes and the new drain plug works great.

 

This self tapping drain plug sounds interesting, its it a fairly common piece? Do you think Advace Auto would have something like this??

[Big Blue]

This self tapping drain plug sounds interesting, its it a fairly common piece? Do you think Advace Auto would have something like this??

 

 

Probably most auto parts store would there for the people that strip out the drain plugs on their vehicles. Ive used them before on a old truck I had.