Clutch Oil Drain Plug Stripped

[bobbys9350]

Hey guys, Last time I changed my clutch oil the drain bolt threads stripped out. Is there a way to fix this without pulling the motor or splitting the cases? I was thinking about just tapping from the outside of the hole to about an inch in and ust using a shorter bolt.... What do you guys think?

[mc_racer]

I don't know if the o6 is different, but on my 05 I would just pull that side off and out in a helicoil. If your's is similar, you can do that with out splitting the cases or removing the motor. I wouldn't risk drilling or tapping the cover on the bike and leaving pieces in the trans.

[d3ktrix]

When I stripped the engine drain bolt on my 05 I successfully tapped it.
I tapped it to a standard thread that was just a hair bigger then the stock metric bolt.
With a much courser thread.

While tapping I only drilled a very little bit at a time and had my dad hold a shop vac at the base of the bit to suck out as many shavings as possible from the grooves in the tap.
And in between drilling I wrapped tape inside out around a small screw driver and stuck it in the hole to fish out even more loose stuff.

Then before I ran it dumped a quart of oil through it with the drain bolt out to hopefully flush out any loose stuff around the drain hole.

Then put in fresh oil/filter, ran it for 30sec. Drained it.

Fresh oil, ran it for 1 min. Drained it.

Fresh oil, rode it around the yard slowly for a few min. Drained it.

Did this more then a year ago and haven't seen any negative affects from it. And never found any flakes in the oil filter after it.
Though the tranny side doesn't pump the old around or have a filter like the engine side. Might be harder to get flakes out.
Best bet would probably tap it with the side case removed or just use a helicoil.

[blacknblue#2]

The 06+ are alot different than the 05. They have a long bolt that runs from the shifter side all the way across to the right side crank case which makes them a pain. I stripped mine and was worried sick till i come to this surprise. The hole is tapped longer than the original bolt goes in. Find a bolt longer than the original, put a new crush washer on it and tighten it down, but not too tight or it will strip again. i think i bought a bolt about a half inch longer. To helicoil these the correct way you would have to split the cases.

[bobbys9350]

That sounds like a good idea, but if I thread in the new bolt, isn't it gonna damage the threads before i can get to the end?

[blacknblue#2]

i thought about that too but i took the chance and it turned out ok. You gotta think though your messing with a hard bolt and aluminum threads. Its gonna be hard for that aluminum to mess up that bolt.