First oil change blues

[WSL91]

Attempted the first oil change today on the XJ. Went to pull the drain plug and man-o-man was it tight but it came out and I thought, wow that was close. Drained the oil

Meanwhile go to oil filter and find bolt hearly rounder off already. Start working on that no move, even with the vice grips. Tried driving a smaller 6 pt socket on no luck. Did I mention the bike just rolled over 10,000 miles?

Went back to the oil drain and went to put the plug back in and it as soon as it starts to tighten up it strips. $%^&$$. Get to looking and there are still a good 1/2" of threads past where the plug ended. Went all around town and ended up buying a much longer bolt and cutting in approx 5/8" longer than the original and put it back in. The stripped threads turned out to be in the bottom of the drain pan. Time was running out for the day so I filled with fresh oil so I can keep riding.

Will order a new oil filter bolt to have on hand and do another oil change in the future. The old one will have to be sacrificed at this point so need a replacement on hand. Sometimes using a cold chisel and hammer trying to back out may be helpful. I can get it, used to wrenching but it will be destroyed. You gotta love working on old machinery!

[DGXSER]

Meanwhile go to oil filter and find bolt hearly rounder off already. Start working on that no move, even with the vice grips. Tried driving a smaller 6 pt socket on no luck. Did I mention the bike just rolled over 10,000 miles?

Spring is in the air...and oil changes are happening everywhere. Note how many threads come up with this exact same problem. Not to make lite of your problem, but it seems you have it under control.

Went back to the oil drain and went to put the plug back in and it as soon as it starts to tighten up it strips. $%^&$$. Get to looking and there are still a good 1/2" of threads past where the plug ended. Went all around town and ended up buying a much longer bolt and cutting in approx 5/8" longer than the original and put it back in. The stripped threads turned out to be in the bottom of the drain pan. Time was running out for the day so I filled with fresh oil so I can keep riding.

Ok, confused. How did you get the oil to stay in, if the drain plug threads are stripped in the pan? Did you tap it out the next size up?

Will order a new oil filter bolt to have on hand and do another oil change in the future. The old one will have to be sacrificed at this point so need a replacement on hand. Sometimes using a cold chisel and hammer trying to back out may be helpful. I can get it, used to wrenching but it will be destroyed. You gotta love working on old machinery!

Its not the age, but how well it was or was not treated over those many years.

[WSL91]

Ok, confused. How did you get the oil to stay in, if the drain plug threads are stripped in the pan? Did you tap it out the next size up?

When the original drain bolt stripped it was not as long as the threaded area in the lower pan casting. I bought a much longer bolt (all that I could find) and cut it 5/8" longer than the original and threaded it back in to the remaining threads (after close inspection and accounting for all the stripped threads). The original is not long and there is an area that has no threads to begin with (starting area) so my longer bolt has about the same area of engagement as the original

Sometimes I post just to share information rather than ask for advice. Thought some other owners would get a chuckle out of my adventures. If you work on anything old you will eventually have a similar experience.

[trbig]

On the oil pans, you have some innitial threads, then there's a gap, and then some more threads. It would seem to me that you'd want to have all that being threads, but I'm sure those little guys in the lab coats designed it that way for a reason. Maybe they had stock options for the company that makes oversized drain plugs?

[skids]

I suggest the drain pulg off of the "helper" rack from your local auto parts store. Make sure that it is longer (unless you like what you have there). In any case, the use of nylon washers is good because they seal well, don't melt, and they help prevent overtightening/stripping of threads. I think they are 14mm ID. I use the nylon washers on the middle and final drive fill plugs as well.

[WSL91]

I suggest the drain pulg off of the "helper" rack from your local auto parts store. Make sure that it is longer (unless you like what you have there). In any case, the use of nylon washers is good because they seal well, don't melt, and they help prevent overtightening/stripping of threads. I think they are 14mm ID. I use the nylon washers on the middle and final drive fill plugs as well.

Yes I looked at them and none of them had any longer threaded area. Some of them were longer but with a non-threaded pilot area. I also changed over to the hard fiber pan washers which are much like the nylon ones.