If you have a few days, you may as well get a better one. One that you can use both allen wrench or open end standard wrench. It also has a super strong magnet built in to catch the very fine metal that your filter don't catch. $19.95
So you stripped the hex that the wrench goes in? You should be able to get a good vise grip on the outside diameter of the bolt.
Or did you strip the threads out of the bottom of the engine? That requires a tap and threaded insert or heli-coil to fix. You should be able to do either without too much trouble.
Are we playing Twenty Questions here. C'mon Fuller, tell us EXACTLY what the problem is. Is it the male threads on the plug that are stripped? Is it the female threads in the oil sump that are stripped. WHAT?
You fessed up just in the nick of time...we were getting the water board out and rigged up for ya.
You could try this: If you can get a vicegrip pliers clamped onto it, pull downward and rotate it counterclockwise. Maybe some added downward leverage might help. thumb up
You buy the new drain plug from Witchdoctors for $19.95 which comes with an hex head on it already so you can put a wrench on it. Take a look on their site.
It is not the the bolt that is stripped. It will be the aluminum case. Grab head of bolt with vise grip.Pull and turn like described above. You may have to use a large screw driver also and pry it out. Try and not damage the case any more than necessary. You may not have to drill it bigger. It depends on the repair. You may be able to just retap with the correct tap for the insert you use. The hardest part is keeping the chips out of the engine. The oil filter should catch any errant shaving inside.
I did the same thing when I bought my bike a year ago. http://www.victoryforums.com/showthread.php?t=9989 I brought it to a mechanic who fixed it for about $80. He was able to pry/turn the plug out, tap the hole slightly larger, and install a slightly larger oil drain plug.
Boy, is this a weak link in the chain or what!
This here is what pisses me off about manufacturers. It's like how I get all wound up over that silly gas gauge not offering anything trustworthy after F.
I can go into a customers facility and put a crew of guys to building a complex unique machine and after 6 months of it you bet I have had to tweak this and fudge that but when the owner comes up to push a button or look at a gauge or do a routine maintenance operation, as long as those things perform without failure and the machine delivers whatever it is intended to deliver, I have a happy customer. If the gauge and the sensors do not agree, if the button intermittently does not activate its controller, if the maintenance activity is in an unnecessarily hard place or performing it risks unnecessary downtime because of a design failure, I'm back in there on my hands and knees making it better and apologizing up one side and down the other.
Simple math, a bike costs twenty thou. A helicoil costs five. Cost at factory to put inserts in any aluminum holes that are part of regular maintenance. A dime maybe.Up base price to twentythousand ten and pocket a couple of more ducats while removing a common interface that has misery for the customer written all over it. Look at the pile of spaghetti Victory tries to pass of for a wiring harness. Thing is, it works, and most ownrs have no need to ever be futzing with it. So be it. It's a mess but it's not worth reinventing. But an oil plug? Give me a break!
WTF? If a knothead like Pop can figure this out what is the problem with the Wiley Coyotes in Vic central? The OP was fit to be tied. He ain't the only one obviously. Yep, the solution is manageable but why should an owner doing routine maintenance ever have to deal with this nonsense (assuming of course that this isn't a tragic failure of the lefty loosie righty tighty principle).
Just saying.
Not disagreeing with you Pop. But as the saying goes; tight's tight and too tight's broke. There are torque values for every nut and bolt on the machine. If we get a little too carried away, and it's easy to do on the oil plug because we don't want that little guy coming loose on the road and causing our motor to fry, the threads get buggered.
A good thread insert kit is better than stock though and maybe some folks should just put one in right at the first oil change.
and about 4 times the cost. I've used countless heli coils, from oil pans, exhaust/head, spark plug holes, you name it. I've never had a leak or an issue from using the kit. Each repair I've made left better and stronger threads than original. While the time sert is higher quality, it really is unecessary especially given the cost.
Curious to know if you stripped the plug while tightening or did it strip when you were attempting to remove it? Does anyone know the torque spec for the oil drain plug?
As previously stated, I too think the OP had a righty-tighty, lefty-loosey problem with an inverted fastener. I was recently training a fellow who was was interested in buying my machine repair business. When it came to an inverted fastener, he just could not get his synapses wired to know which way to turn it to loosen or tighten.
I stripped it putting it back in. Hence there is no oil in the bike, that's why I have to get it picked up.
Fixing it the way some of you suggest sounds easy enough. Let's remember though I managed to strip the plug myself. I'm gonna make the embarrising trip into the shop.
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Push or pull your ratchet when laying on the right side of the bike and laying on your back? LoL That depends on which direction the ratchet handle is pointing. LMAO Now you're REALLY confused!
Try to look up at the drain plug and say to yourself out loud "Righty tighty Lefty loosey" forget about where the handle is it won't matter it's all about the plug and which way you want it to go. thumb up
If using a ratchet wrench, check the direction its going to rotate PRIOR to applying it to the fastener.
Fuller...you stripped it while putting the drain plug back. Did you reef on the wrench too hard? Is that how it happened?
Is the bike outside? Sitting outside with temperature swings will likely create condensation which will eventually begin to rust some components internally. That being said, a lot of dealers have bikes sitting on the showroom floor without fuel and oil in it but that is a controlled climate. I would say you're okay for a while. A specific time range? just too many variables.
When you want to get the ratchet set up right, forget about trying to convert angles in your head. Grab the socket with one hand and flip the direction lever as needed to make things rotate right. Once it is set right, use it to tighten or loosen the plug. No matter how good you are, trying to visualize directions will eventually get you in trouble, but a preset direction in a familiar orientation will never fail you. Just my perspective but I never get the direction wrong with a ratchet type wrench when I use this approach.
It doesn't sound like the OP got the direction wrong. He drained the oil then went to tighten it up. He hit 15lbs of torque then gave it another 15lbs of torque until it spinned round and round and round. Not hard to do. I just changed my oil yesterday. I usually don't use torque wrenches for things like an oil drain plug. But I had this thread in mind when I put in my drain plug and pulled out the torqe wrench, set her to 15lbs and when I hit the mark I thought to myself "I would have went a lot more than that"
It doesn't sound like the OP got the direction wrong. He drained the oil then went to tighten it up. He hit 15lbs of torque then gave it another 15lbs of torque until it spinned round and round and round. Not hard to do. I just changed my oil yesterday. I usually don't use torque wrenches for things like an oil drain plug. But I had this thread in mind when I put in my drain plug and pulled out the torqe wrench, set her to 15lbs and when I hit the mark I thought to myself "I would have went a lot more than that"
Most of you are over thinking tighten the drain plug.
The drain plug keeps oil in it does not hold any thing together. Like fender to frame or exhaust to motor.
All you need is a snug fit to prevent oil from coming out. The crush washer prevent the head of the bolt from digging into the aluminum.
Put some anti seize on threads and on washer to prevent bolt from locking up.
Once you feel it tight and go a 1/16th of a turn farther you should be fine.
"feel it tight" is not a spec. It's a relative term that means something different to each person. Going an additional 1/16th could be the difference in the plug falling out or stripping depending on the relative term tight.
15 ft lbs is the spec. I would assume most of us have a torque wrench. If not and working on our own bikes and cars is in our scope of work, then a torque wrench can be a money saving investment. I chose the word investment because you will likely see a return by not having to make additional repairs due to over tightening or under tightening fasteners.
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