how do you fix a stripped out drain plug?

[blue83ranger]

my dad has a 250sx and the drain plug hole was stipped out when he got it. and i was just wondering what would be the best way to "fix" it? The hole isn't completely smooth but the new plug we got just slides all the way in without having to turn it. any thoughts?

[bigredhead]

Heli coil !

[blue83ranger]

i didn't even think of that. that should do the trick. thanks

[Tri-ZNate]

Ok JB weld the little f~~~er and drill a hole in the center of the plug itself. Tap it and put a bolt in it. Whenever you want to drain it take out the new bolt you put in.
Did this on my one SX.

[oddball3]

Heli-coil is the best. But I have tapped it with a 1/4 inch pipe tap and put in a 1/4 inch magnetic pipe plug.

[dblshockpower]

Just seal the damn thing up and use an "Oil Boy" to extract the old engine oil....pretend it's a marine motor.

[mymint87]

wrap a small amount of sewing thread around the bolt before inserting, should get a couple thousand more miles out of it:welcome:

[Solid Snake]

wrap a small amount of sewing thread around the bolt before inserting, should get a couple thousand more miles out of it:welcome:


Not sure I understand this, please elaborate.

[ANTI-QUAD]

heli-coil is the beat approche or a expandable rubber plug,but rubber might get soft and come loose. if you do the heli-coil,make sure you pour some clean oil thruogh the engine (after tapping the hole) to rinse out any metal shavings

[oddball3]

heli-coil is the beat approche or a expandable rubber plug,but rubber might get soft and come loose. if you do the heli-coil,make sure you pour some clean oil thruogh the engine (after tapping the hole) to rinse out any metal shavings


Or put a lot of grease on the tap, that holds the shavings.

[4cylinders]

hey, most car parts places have an expanding replacement rubber plug, just make sure you don't loose the tool that comes with it.

[blue83ranger]

when we got it, it had a rubber plug in it but i had to destory it to get it out. we'll probably try to retap it or heil-coil it. might be a while before we get to it though.

[Oldshell4481]

tap and die and find a new bolt to fit it..

[ANTI-QUAD]

Or put a lot of grease on the tap, that holds the shavings.
thats a good idea too..just goes to show,,,,your never too old to learn something new.....anything it takes to keep that junk out of the case

[broook]

Please don`t quote me on this but " I was told[/*]" that the tool used to tap for a helicoil will not go into the case far enough to cut the threads properly. It hits something inside. That was in reference to the 85-6 Big Red. That means you would have to split the cases.

[Solid Snake]

My CR125 had a this problem, couldn't get a helicoil because the shift drum was in the way inside so they couldn't tap and insert the helicoil threads. They said I would have to split the cases for that so to fix it they tapped the plug itself with a smaller bolt and welded that whole plug into the cases stripped threads. Now it's like I have a new plug but only smaller.

[Dammit!]

I had mine strip out and the case cracked on my R recently. I had a guy weld the crack and then he tapped it out and put a tapered pipe plug in it. Not sure how well it's working yet. It leaks a little but I don't have the right size allen wrench to make sure it's snug. I could probably put some plumbers tape around the plug to stop any small amount of leaking though. It's the crack I'm more worried about.

I'm going to just replace the case at some point. If I can hold off for a while I'd be happy though.

[Jason Hall]

A 1/4" pipe tap with grease on the tip is the way to go, Pipe thread is tapered so the tap will not go very far into the case. I have done that exact thing numerous times on 250-R cases. Dammit I don't think you will ever have any trouble as long as you welded the crack. The only thing you need to worry about is over tightening the pipe plug. Being that pipe thread is tapered it will try to split the crack back open. I would snug that baby down good with some teflon tape & never worry 1 bit.

[blue83ranger]

we got it fixed. my dad asked our local honda dealer what we should do and they said to go to an autoparts store and get a 1/2 inch self taping plug, but my dad didin't like that idea to much, so he just got a "normal" 1/2 inch plug and we retaped it and it worked perfectly.