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After repairing my clutch I was ready to fill the engine with oil and try her out. Put in the drain plug and, with the torque wrench set to 20 ft/lbs, I ran the drain plug down until the wrench clicked. Something just didn't feel right so instead of set the wrench to 31 ft/lbs I set it to 25 ft/lbs. The plug turned over ½ turn and the wrench didn't click. I knew something was wrong. Pull the plug and found that a bunch of aluminum threads came out with it.
Pulled the oil pan (strainer cover per Yamaha) and found that Yamaha had designed the oil pan to take a 22mm long drain plug. My drain plug was only 15 mm long and thus only engaged part of the treads. My bike has had two PO's so they may have changed the plug for some reason but if everyone's plug is the size of mine I guessing someone at Yamaha changed the plug length to the 15mm length for some cost savings reason. Maybe they had extras from some other model that used a M14-1.5 X 15mm and figured that the shorter length wouldn't make any difference?
If I would have know this ahead of time I would have replaced the original drain plug with an M14-1.5 X 22 bolt. The 15mm only uses about ½ the threads that are available and the oil pan designed went to a lot of work to add more thread. Even longer, up to 50mm, will work. Note, the longer one also has the advantage of taking longer to fall out if it does become loose. Chances are one will see the oil leak long before the plug falls completely out. The bolt has a bigger head than the drain plug but the seal (2 aluminum washers) fit and it works great.
I ended up fixing my oil pan and it is better than new if the JB Weld holds the nut I installed in place. It will be a test every time I change the oil. There is a used one on ebay for 57$ (plus $5 handling and shipping costs). Sounds high to me but I'm cheap. I'm going to check with the local dealer on the price of a new one (if available). If I get one the repair will last forever, if I don't it will break next oil change.
Pulled the oil pan (strainer cover per Yamaha) and found that Yamaha had designed the oil pan to take a 22mm long drain plug. My drain plug was only 15 mm long and thus only engaged part of the treads. My bike has had two PO's so they may have changed the plug for some reason but if everyone's plug is the size of mine I guessing someone at Yamaha changed the plug length to the 15mm length for some cost savings reason. Maybe they had extras from some other model that used a M14-1.5 X 15mm and figured that the shorter length wouldn't make any difference?
If I would have know this ahead of time I would have replaced the original drain plug with an M14-1.5 X 22 bolt. The 15mm only uses about ½ the threads that are available and the oil pan designed went to a lot of work to add more thread. Even longer, up to 50mm, will work. Note, the longer one also has the advantage of taking longer to fall out if it does become loose. Chances are one will see the oil leak long before the plug falls completely out. The bolt has a bigger head than the drain plug but the seal (2 aluminum washers) fit and it works great.
I ended up fixing my oil pan and it is better than new if the JB Weld holds the nut I installed in place. It will be a test every time I change the oil. There is a used one on ebay for 57$ (plus $5 handling and shipping costs). Sounds high to me but I'm cheap. I'm going to check with the local dealer on the price of a new one (if available). If I get one the repair will last forever, if I don't it will break next oil change.
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