Oil Filter screw repair

[broncomoto]

It's almost there. with all the fine advice and babying the darn thing, it's gonna strip. Who's had to do this? Didi you helicoil?

[calvin71]

What Year Is Your Bike? I Have A 2000 426 The Bottom Hole On The Oil Cover Stripped, So What I Did Is Used 6mm x 1.0 Heli-Coil Its Runs About 40.00 Buck At Napa Auto Parts, I Had To Remove The Cover Drill It Out And The Clean The Hole With A q-Tip To Remove All The Metal Shavings. I Installed To Heli-Coils Worked Like Band New,Unless You Want To Spend About 250. On A New Side Cover. Oh The Heli-Coil Set Will Come With The Right Size Drill Bit (drill bit will be a 1/4) ? I Hope This Helps. ?

[broncomoto]

It's an '06, but had the same problem with the '03 and sounds like you're no stranger to the problem. Guess Yamaha has to make money somehow, because they'll never get it from selling those inexpensive bikes! I've heard that the helicoil will last indefinitely, unlike the factory (poor) set up. I'm good at working on the bikes, but I may pay to have this one done. From what I can tell, you got one chance at getting the 1/4 to take, right?

[calvin71]

Its Really Simple, Just Remove The Side Case And Drill That Little Booger, Just Remember its About 85.00 An Hr. At The Shop. It Took Me About 45 min Start To Fin. You Can Put It On a Drill Press So Its Perfect. I Just Used A Hand Drill. But Please Check The Bolt Size From The 426, To See If Your 06 Is The Same, If So Go For It. After You Drill The Hole Thread The Case, If You Haven't Used A Tap Before, Start The Tap In, Then Back It Out A 1/4 Turn Go back In Then Back Out Do This Until You Thread It To The Bottom. If Can Do It You Can. ?(Have Any Questions Just Email Me.

[broncomoto]

Thanks, when it's tightens for the last time, I'll let you know how it went.

[munchieu]

been there, its still stock but the next filter change it will probably need to be tapped ?

[sean3239]

happened to my 03 450. I took the crank case cover off and thought about doing the helicoil but thought I need a vice or drill press to do correctly. Took it to the shop and they put a time cert in from the back and charged me $42...not bad

[Raven1911]

Mine was just about to strip and what I did was go to the local Lowes and buy a longer bolt. I cut the bolt about 1/4 inch longer than the old one and screwed it in. It engages the threads a lot better and was solid as a rock! Maybe try this before doing the helicoil. I think the one from Yamaha that is only 1 inch long is not long enough.

[eazrider]

Sounds like if you fellows had a torque wrench (or a softer touch!) you would use fewer heli-coils...that 6mm bolt should take no more than about 80 INCH lbs or so of torque. I have an '04, and haven't noticed any problems...yet...!

[jrcgaf364]

It's not always caused by overtightining.....this perticular bolt gets removed a lot. Also oil drains out and goes into the hole for the bolt carrying little shavings into it...you put the bolt back in there and wala you have a thread muncher over time.

[joshb]

Mine was just about to strip and what I did was go to the local Lowes and buy a longer bolt. I cut the bolt about 1/4 inch longer than the old one and screwed it in. It engages the threads a lot better and was solid as a rock! Maybe try this before doing the helicoil. I think the one from Yamaha that is only 1 inch long is not long enough.

That's what I did and it's held up for about 5 changes so far. ?

[BajaFool]

Are you all speaking about the bottom allen head bolt that holds the oil filter cover on? I just looked at my 2006 and that bolt seems to have a larger head on it than the top two allen head bolts. I don't recall if my 2003 had two different size bolt heads, but the dealer stripped the bottom bolt out of the filter cover the first time it was in for service. They put a helicoil in it and I never had a problem in 3,000+ miles.

[broncomoto]

what's a time cert (I like alternatives to helicoils because they seem to fail after not too long)?

[DaveJ]

If you chase the threads in the case and replace the bolt with a new one (from Yamaha) this too will fix the problem. I'm about 10 oil changes into this approach and things are holding up well.

At least it's an option.

[MotoGoalie]

If you chase the threads in the case and replace the bolt with a new one (from Yamaha) this too will fix the problem. I'm about 10 oil changes into this approach and things are holding up well.

At least it's an option.

That's what I did. I think the lower bolt is softer than the threads in the case so that presents a problem with using 'alternate' bolts.

If you use a harder bolt, longer too, you may really booger up the cases where a simple Yamaha bolt would have fixed the problem easier and I also noticed, as was mentioned that the lower bolt is different than the top two. It also has a larger, smooth aread up by the head that looks like it seals up better than a standard threaded bolt.

Why not buy GY parts and gently tighten it from now on? ?

[Extrapolate]

I just did the same thing on my 99 YZ400. Bolt was stripped. Read your post and thought I'd try this (since it's the simplest of all the solutions). Local dealer had the bolt in stock $0.40. Stopped at an auto parts store on the way home and picked up a cheap metric tap set (6 taps and handle for $7!). Covered the tap in grease to catch the chips. Chased the threads a few times, installed the new bolt and it grabbed like gang busters. Expect it will last awhile.

This said, my bolt was very visibly damaged, perhaps some people have more damage to the case than the bolt. Definitely worth trying though!

Good luck to all who run into this...

[grayracer513]

cALVIN, wHY dO yOU cAPITALIZE eVERY wORD? iT lOOKS wEIRD. JK

BajaFool,

Your '03 not only had a different bolt head on the lower screw, the other two were 8mm hex bolts (at least when the bike was new). That screw also has a shoulder on it. The '06 is the first one that had three Allen heads on it.

The problem with the intrusion of metal chips into the threads can be minimized a good deal if you ignore the manual's advice on using that passage as a drain for the oil filter well. Instead, remove the top two first then remove the bottom one and let the oil drain to the outside. That's what I do, and neither of mine have ever had a problem with thread failure on the bottom oil filter screw.

[thumpinyz]

I just broke off the bolt that goes thru to the crankcase. ugh!!!! I am going to remove the crankcase cover and try and back out the broken piece. I am going to then chase the threads, does anyone know what size tap this is? I am not a master mechanic by any means, I dont even know what that helicoil thingy is ya'll keep talking about. any help ya'll could give me would be greatly appreciated. Oh yeah my bike is a 02' 426. Thanks