Stripped Drive Shaft Drain Plug: Temporary Fix?

[mrclubike]

  I would have to remove the drive shaft and put it in a vise to do it

FWIW,

Maybe you got your words mixed up but you do not need to remove the drive shaft or drive shaft housing

You only need to remove the final drive

[georgesgiralt]

Hello,
Either won't work. The inside of the final drive is full witht the axe and pinions. So you won't be able to either drill or tap properly the aluminum casing.
You need to remove the drive and dismantle it to have proper access to drill and put an Helicoil or TimeSert.
Do not ask how I know this ...

[dogshome]

Whatever you do, don't use J-B Weld. My Saab 9-3 came with a glued sump plug. The stuff is permanent, even on oily alloy.

We had to weld a bit of steel to the plug (it got hot) drag it out and then weld up the cracked alloy sump. This was done in place and amazingly never leaked in 150,000 miles and 15 oil changes.

I'm currently driving the last of the 9-5s and dreading changing to some SUV identi-box 

How many Airheads do I see on UK roads? Not many. 9-5s? None. 9-3s? at the weekend very occasionally. Identical SUVs with brain dead motorcycle-unaware drivers (like dead people) "all the time" 

[mrclubike]

Whatever you do, don't use J-B Weld. My Saab 9-3 came with a glued sump plug. The stuff is permanent, even on oily alloy. 

Thats a Good thing    If you don't want to take it apart 

The stuff is awesome

It is holding this oil filler cap assembly on my R1150R 

[tunnelrider]

Just posting back on this old topic about the Loctite 5770 thread sealant I used to fix my weepy swing arm plug- after 1.5 years I've changed the swing arm oil successfully and reused the thread sealant again on the plug. Recommend.

[gregb]

Might just add what this newbie did when he found his bike had a lot of damaged threads. I took the final drive off and decided as has been said here, that it was indeed extremely difficult to get a perfect thread repair done without dismantling the drive. I was definitely not doing that but did get a helicoil insert in there ok by grinding the end of the final tap flush so that it got maximum cutting depth.

The new thread insert is in there but there isn't a lot of thread in it. At the time I was doing a lot of drive oil level checks to find where oil was being lost (the gearbox) and it was being drained fairly often. So rather than risk any other problems I made another drain bolt which I cut a 6mm threaded hole in. So when I drain the oil now it's done with a smaller screw that is never going to get stripped and is still big enough to drain warm oil. The 12mm plug has thread sealant and it isn't going to leak. It was intended to be temporary but is still there.

[dogshome]

Everyone should own a 3/8" socket set and keep the 1/2" or larger well away from bikes. And cars unless its head bolts or suspension!   

[Burt]

Very good advice regarding 3/8" drive.  I won't use 1/2" drive unless it is bigger than about 25mm/1" with the only exception being the 4 rear wheel bolts on my K75 'cause my breaker bar is longer and easier to use in a one man job. 

I also use 1/4" drive for most things under 13mm or 1/2".  Generally I carry a set of those on my motos along with a set of allen key sockets.  Small is good as they are easier to carry. 

One of the best tools for my R65 is a Stahlwille 19/22mm ring spanner.  Far better than the open ended jobbie that comes with the tool kit.  It means you can use your boot on it to break the torque if away from home without the spanner falling off.