Help, thread gone on oil filter bolt

[Daves]

hi,

i'm looking for some help. one of the threads has pulled out of one of the 3 hex bolts that holds the oil filter plat in place. now these bolts are very long and are threaded into the crank case, i believe. is it possible to repair this with out taking every thing apart?

any help...?

blessings
dave

[winmac]

it's a common xt problem, re-using o-rings and overtighting. a search of the fourm should yeild some results.
But the side cover will need to be removed to install helicoil to repair the thread.
IMO you might as well put helicoils in both of the filter bolt threads, after repairing one the seconed striped at the next filter change.

[jsrhk]

I agree about helicoil repair. The best way is to do all three at the same time, The helicoil inserts are steel and once all are done then you have piece of mind that you don't need to be too delicate with undoing and replacing the plate cover for each oil filter change. Its not just an XT problem, I would say its all of that type of bike, mine is a Suzuki XF650 and it had that same problem.

[lee5500]

Same has happenned to me and I made a very simple and permanent(ish) repair out in the bush. The hole for the bolt is deeper than the bolt itself obviously which means there should be at least a few mm of good thread left down there. I simply screwed in a long stud of the same diameter with a nut on the end to clamp the oil filter cover tightly in place. That very easy repair lasted the rest of my trip (7000 miles) with no problems at all.

[Daves]

thanks everyone, the bush repair is a great idea, i love the lateral thinking!

does anyone know here i can get the right size helicoils?

[aukeboss]

It's the standard M6 according DIN. I have a helicoil set from an English manufacture, so should be available in UK also.
Pretty expensive though, if you are not planning to strip more threads would recommend to bring clutch cover to machine shop.

Warning: do not install a larger bolt as the hole seems bigger, you will block the oil channel that goes to the crankshaft!

Auke

[lowlife]

I have used a product 2 times on 2 different bikes for a similar repair to what you describe. It is made by lock tite and is called thread repair and is an epoxy. I currently have it for the same situation you describe. The heli coil is a better repair and I would recommend using studs whenever possible instead of capscrews for frequently used places. But this stuff can be handy on the trail if you have time for it to cure. JK