frozen oil filter bolt

[crazy steve]

Hi Larry,
ordinary bolts have heads that are bigger than their threads and folks are used to that and to "reefing" on them appropriately.
BUT
Oil drain plugs tend to have heads that are smaller than their thread size.
(Not always, the XS650 magnetic drain plugs are 27mm A/F)
I reckon if oil drain plugs had bigger hex sizes they'd stand up better in normal use.

Not really....

The bigger head size is for more 'sealing area', but the downside they do reef on them. Ford used 7/8" oil drain plugs for years and stripped oil pans from gorilla mechanics was a plague. GM used the same thread size but with a 9/16" head and had far less trouble...

[skids]

Nylon washers for drain plug.

I had to get a new oil drain plug screw from the "helper section" of Autozone because one of my xs11's was stripped in the famale threads. It came with a few nylon washers. At first I was afraid it would melt or get soft and seep oil. I'll tell you, those are the best types of washers. For one, you are more cautious about overtightening them, second, the plug is WAY easier to remove because of those washers. I use them on the filler plugs for the middle and final drive drives as well (I think those are also 14mm inside diam).

P.S. the helper drain screw requires that the filter cup be removed to get the drain plug all the way out. I also drilled and tapped the filter cup on the bottom to put a small drain plug in it (also with a smaller nylon washer), which makes oil changes much more enjoyable. Virtually all of the oil gets in the drain pan and none on the pipes or the garage floor.

[bluesdog]

Finally measured the amount of drained old oil, and it looks like there was @ 2/3 to 3/4 litre down. So that's not too bad for an engine that was only started/warmed up and ridden for short rides for a year, with an incorrectly installed filter.

Hopefully by next winter I'll have a nice, warm workshop for tinkering with my bikes!