| Author | Message | ||
     Rkutzner |
I had a REALLY BAD DAY. I went to change my oil and crankcase fluid today. Drained both. Went to put the plugs back in. The service manual said the oil plug was 26-29 lb/ft and the crankcase plug was 14-30 lb/ft. So I set my torque wrench to 15 to start and hand threaded both plugs finger tight. The crank torqued down and clicked. Went to do the oil plug and it just kept turning...I knew something was wrong so I took it out and you can guess what I saw. Plug looks perfect, hole is stripped. I have no doubt it was stripped at the factory, I was only at 1/2 the torque setting and had put it in to the o-ring by hand so it wasn't cross threaded. I've put gears in Jeeps, I'm not a certified mechanic but I'm no dummy and very careful. I torque even the small screws. On top of that, I have to call a dealership that quit selling Buell this spring (Gettysburg) right after I bought my 2007 TT. Any advice how to go about remedying this situation? Obviously I want it done under warranty but am aware I have a problem I can't really prove and may end up at some dealership I didn't buy the bike at. Worst case for me, I'll replace it myself but can't imagine what a stock swingarm costs. SERIOUS ADVICE PLEASE. Especially from dealership members. PLEASE. | ||
| Lastcyclone |
Find a good independant shop with a Heli Coil. Get the bike there somehow, they should be able to put new threads on the swing arm in a day for not too much $. | ||
| Midknyte |
You're not the first [with a somehow stripped plug hole], nor will you be the last. Heck, it's happened to just enough of us that you can't even feel special about it. Add another vote for Heli Coiling and moving on. Check out your options, but try not to build up any venom. | ||
| Damnut |
I torque even the small screws. I see this more and more that people are torquing EVERYTHING and not learning how to "Feel" things getting tight, leading to stripped out bolts. IMO, you really don't have to torque down every bolt on your bike. I don't know how many times I have seen on this board that folks are stripping out the oil drain plug. I know that the manual doesn't give the right spec but I think that's where the "feel" should kick in and prevent you from doing so. Sorry to hear about your drain plug, hopefully you get it fix without much hassle. | ||
| New12r |
Been a auto tech for too many years, the only time a torque wrench hits my bike is on the engine. Never stripped a bolt, or broke one off either. I have however lost a few out of the chin fairing but that is it. Like the others have said, helicoil it and move on. FYI, the drain bolts should be put in by hand all the way to the o ring. If they give you resistance I would take a close look(i think you said that is how you did it). | ||
| Reepicheep |
I tried a heli-coil in a buddies SV650, and while it more or less worked, he had a slight annoying slow drip from it. He has not mentioned it since, so maybe newer / better crush washers took care of it, but it was annoying. So you might want to just tap it to the next bigger drain plug (or just bolt) you can find. Though with the o-ring on the Buells, the heli coil might work fine. The SV did not have that. Heavy grease on the drill and the tap will help capture most "goo". I then flushed it out with WD-40 liberally sprayed in the drain hole and a brush, then flushed the whole mess with several quarts of the cheapest and lightest weight oil I could find. You can call your dealer and Buell CS and try, but I can see it quickly taking more time and energy then just fixing it yourself. | ||
| Greenagain |
I have a friend that works for Buell, and his dealer did the same to his new Uly too.  | ||
| Rkutzner |
I called the Frederick dealership, they said since I worked on it I'd have to pay to fix it, and put me on hold a few times for a long time. Forget them, now I remember why I got my bike at Battlefield. Battlefield, other than dropping the Beull line and not being able to get Beull parts, believed me and told me had that happened to my VRod they would have fixed it under warranty, they get paid either way. Anyways, the service manager told me to either bring up my bolt and measurements of the flat machined area on the bottom and they might be able to fix me up with a Harley oversized drain plug or just to go to an auto parts store and get one to fit. He said they had flat nylon washers and problably would work with both the washer and o-ring. Worse case he recommended helicoil, just to be very careful like you guys said and use grease and run a few oil changes and a filters through. In light of that, I think I'll try the oversized plug first since I don't have to drill anything out and there is 3/8" of thread area to work with along with a fairly big flat area for the washer to seal....I'll give them that. I use torque wrenches on anything with aluminum. Like I said, it just kept turning, never really gave me even 10 lb/ft of tightness, let alone what was required...it was stripped from the factory. By the way, a new swingarm is $325 so around 300 shipped from one of the 20% off places. Not as bad as I thought. Does anyone drain their oil from the fill hole ? After I get this buttoned up I am tempted to do it that way from here on out!! THANKS GUYS, YOUR RESPONSE IS HEARTENING !!! | ||
| Midknyte |
Hey, git yerself some Darkhorse sliders to protect that swingarm the rest of the way as soon as you can while your at it. Best thing you can add other than the frame pucks. | ||
| Firemanjim |
Alot of auto parts stores have an assortment of O/S oil drain plugs as this happens to cars all the time. Might check out if they have an O/S for yours. I had to put one with a longer threaded section in one of my S-2's as the last tech had left off the crush washer and tightened the steel plug into the alum tank until it stopped leaking--ouch.But there was enough threads left deeper than the stock plug to use the longer one. | ||
| Rkutzner |
I got frame pucks stock....TT baby ! It ends up that the plug is your standard 1/2-20 so you can get oversize, double oversize, and triple oversize (I can screw up two more times before needing a helicoil or time-sert). I put in a standard oversize and it went in pretty snug, I'll have to see tomorrow whether it leaks or not, the flat gasket is a kind of hard nylon. I tried the o-ring but it would at least need an indent in the bolt so it doesn't crush flat (which it did !). Had to go with the flat nylon washer. I used high temp thread lock and after it was seated cleaned the area with some brake cleaner around the nut and then applied a small amount of rtv. If oil comes through that then I'll have to rethink! Found a website with the oversize plugs with the magnet. If this works I plan to buy one or two with the magnet for the next oil change. (Message edited by rkutzner on August 10, 2007) | ||
| Coolice |
Get safety wire and drill the plug, safety wire it to the oil line at the swing arm. Then you don't have to sweat it as far as it loosening up. | ||
| Rkutzner |
Good idea, though I'm sure I'll be getting in the habit of running my finger down there before a ride to check for seepage. Anyone see any issue with using some high temp thread lock? I already have it on with it but haven't filled it up with oil yet...... | ||
| Firemanjim |
Hallejulah!!!!!  | ||
| Flatbusted |
H-D Dealers have a 1/2 tapered pipe plug w/magnet PN 718 ,Should be able to pick one up for about 4 bucks |
