RT Boxer

Tom Hill’s article was my guiding inspiration throughout this process of removing a stuck oil drain hex bolt. It took me 8 weeks to do the research and assemble all the necessary parts (quite a saga). Who knows how long it would have taken me without Tom’s write-up??

Back in December I rounded out the inside hex of the transmission drain plug while trying to do a routine oil change. In January I wrote about getting set of muti-spline extractors from the US.

I contacted Motoworks and they helped me determine the replacement plug/bolt I needed -part# SSA19143 which came with one large crush washer, sia63300.  Here’s the page from RealOEM that shows the parts diagram:

When I had all the parts and tools assembled and the weather rose above freezing (and the Six Nations rugby tournament was on a rest weekend of which Ireland are leading!), I went at it…

After riding around for about 15mins to warm up the engine, I placed the bike on the center stand. I put tinfoil over the exhaust manifold to stop oil dripping on it. I then removed the fill (upper) plug.

Instead of using BMW’s oil drain tool…

…I made my own out of an old “Bed Head” hair conditioner bottle, slicing off about an inch from the top, the base and…

cutting out a notch for drippage.

I hammered the mulit-spline extractor into the damaged drain (lower) plug. I gave it a pretty good thumping to ensure it was firmly in. I didn’t heat the bolt with a torch as Tom Hill described. I guess I was a bit wary of using a flame near my engine with all that oil around. I’m sure it’s fine, but I just didn’t. The 3/8″ fit the inside of my damaged bolt. The Irwin tools are all non-metric (coming from the US). The hex end is 1/2″.

I learnt on this job that 1/2″ =12mm. Good to know!

Close up…

Using a 450mm breaker bar for extra leverage…

…together with a 3/8″ -> 12mm Teng coupler adapter…

…I lent my weight on it. As I applied considerable pressure, I felt slipping and thought I was chewing up the bolt or the tools (I didn’t use a block of wood under the bar as Tom Hill did. Laziness, on my part). What, in fact was happening, was the multi-spline biting into the inside of the damaged drain plug. There was a creak and then a CRACK! and the stuck drain plug/bolt came loose. It was a very satisfying moment after all the weeks of waiting.

Here’s a close up…

And another of the inside of the damaged drain plug. You can see where the mult-spline extractor chewed into the side of the plug…

I let the oil drain out for about 10 mins. It was foul and acrid smelling. I was only partially successful protecting the exhaust manifold from dripping.  It’s not the end of the world, but the burning burning gear oil is stinky.

I attempted to flush out the gear box by pouring clean oil through it before re-installing the drain plug. I couldn’t see any debris come out so I’m not sure my attempt was successful or necessary. Still, what’s a cup of oil if it helps?

I installed the new drain plug (with new crush washer). I bought a new 12mm hex socket just to be sure I didn’t damage anything on the re-installation. I think part of my original problem was I was using hex/allen keys which didn’t have enough strength or torque and slipped around causing damage to the bolt. (That’s the 3/8″ – 12mm adapter on there again.)

The oil I bought had a built-in tube so I didn’t need my flexible funnel. I squeezed the entire 1 liter in.

I re-installed the old fill plug (with new crush washer) and torqued both bolts closed to 23Nm (as per Clymer). This is quite significant tightness. I thought about applying anti-seize but didn’t bother. I’m confident that I’ve now got the correct fitting tools, so future extraction won’t be a problem.

And that was that! Eight weeks of planning and waiting for one of the simplest jobs I’ve done on the RT. Even with my extremely cautious approach today, it only took me about 30 mins from taking out all the gear to final clean-up.

Thanks again to Tom Hill for the original guide!

This entry was posted on Saturday, February 21st, 2009 at 1:45 pm and is filed under Engine, Maintenance, Oil/fluid changes, Tools. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.