Stripped drain plug?

[CHAR250R]

Never let your 14 year old cousin change his oil. Have you ever had to repair a stripped drain plug? What did you do? I will probably use a helicoil. It's on an 87 250X. Any one make a repair kit for something like this?

[Golden Joker]

Hey, I just had to got a helicoil kit my blaster. I got mine from a local autozone. I am sure o'reily or nappa should have it.

p.s. you have to have a certain mm helicoil set.

[SSracingNY]

SAVE YOUR MONEY!!! Dont get Helicoil. I stripped my drain plug on my blaster and I was thinking about that but my dad told me to go to NAPA since we know the guy real well and he hooked me up with a self-tapping bolt. Worked excellent. Just take your old plug in and match it up so its not too long. Costed me like $4 or something with tax.

[WEEZIL]

2 seconds a heli coil and a washer with a nylon nut and my quad has been fine since

yea i striped myn on my 400ex but i just got a new oil tank

[YFZ450Ridr]

i striped one once and i hammered the next smallest size socket on it and got it off and got a new one.

it might be worth a try if you could get a dremmil(sp?) in there and cut a little slit and try to turn it with a screw driver but that would be a tough one to break loose.

[fst400exrider]

its simple, take out the bolt, go to hardware store, ask a employee or do it yourself, match up bolts then buy it

[Aceman]

He's talking about a stripped oil drain hole, not the actual drain bolt. I used a helicoil on mine and a new crush washer. Seemed to work for me. Gotta be careful to keep the shaving from getting in the motor. No matter what you will get a small amount of shaving so your best bet is to change the oil and filter a couple of times after you do. When I bought the metric kit from Napa for this it was in the 70 dollar range.:eek2:

[CHAR250R]

Originally posted by Aceman
He's talking about a stripped oil drain hole, not the actual drain bolt. I used a helicoil on mine and a new crush washer. Seemed to work for me. Gotta be careful to keep the shaving from getting in the motor. No matter what you will get a small amount of shaving so your best bet is to change the oil and filter a couple of times after you do. When I bought the metric kit from Napa for this it was in the 70 dollar range.:eek2:


Yep. It's the hole that is stripped. The drain plug is fine.

[SSracingNY]

Originally posted by CHAR250R
Yep. It's the hole that is stripped. The drain plug is fine.

yea just go get a self tapping bolt

[CHAR250R]

I'm gonna drill it and tap it to the next size bolt. I don't trust the helicoil.

[Aceman]

Helicoil is stronger than the original hole. Think about it...you just drilled the hole oversize and and rethreaded it. Then you screw in a hardened steel spring that replaces the old threads. Much stronger in my opinion. It would take some serious torque to strip a helicoiled hole out. Also if you go to a larger bolt you will have to find a new larger crush washer or drill out an original one making it pretty thin and flimsy. But to each his own.

[250wrecker]

yea guys i stripped the thread pattern up on the bolt and in the motor so i has to use locktite so it wouldnt leak it sucked

[01 400EXer]

I purchased a RM 250 one time that had a stripped drain plug hole and I was able to purchase a heli coil spark plu repair kit ($6). Came with 3 sizes for the depth. I was able to do this because the drain plug itself was the same thread pattern as spark plugs. It work great and never had a problem with it again. You may want to look into that and see if that is even possible.

[Scott-300ex]

i was ganna say drill it and tap it

when you drill it put grease on the bit so the fillings won't get in your engine
same with the tapping

when your done, maybe you should leave the plug out and let 1 quart of oil drain out of it to get anything that could still be in there

[CHAR250R]

Originally posted by Aceman
Helicoil is stronger than the original hole. Think about it...you just drilled the hole oversize and and rethreaded it. Then you screw in a hardened steel spring that replaces the old threads. Much stronger in my opinion. It would take some serious torque to strip a helicoiled hole out. Also if you go to a larger bolt you will have to find a new larger crush washer or drill out an original one making it pretty thin and flimsy. But to each his own.


I'm not worried about the helicoil stripping out. I'm worried about it falling out. They can and do work themselves out sometimes. The reason this happens is because of the 2 different metals. They expand and contract at different temperatures. I suppose I could safety wire the plug in.

[Aceman]

Mines been helicoiled for over a year now without that happening, if that helps.