Leak at T500 tranny oil drain

[jabcb]

Turns out I have a problem somewhat similar to another topic about a broken oil drain:
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=11297

Got a 74 T500 a while back and am now trying to get it on the road.
Its been leaking for quite some time & I just figured out what's up.

Someone made a repair to the drain plug area & installed an aftermarket drain plug.
The aftermarket plug has an inner bolt that you remove to drain the tranny without disturbing the outer bolt.
Not 100% sure yet, but it appears to be leaking from the sealing area between the outer bolt & crankcase.

Any suggestions?

[ConnerVT]

Which is probably the reason they installed that bolt in the first place.

[Coyote]

That outer bolt must be some kind of tight. If you can get it out, some high temp RTV on the threads and head underside should seal it up.. Of course, that means it needs to be dry.

[titan performance]

OOoo that looks a mess.
Take great care, I had a drain plug fall out of an old GT500 once, at around 60 mph. It was virtually a straight road, but the rear came right round and high sided me off when the rear tyre got covered in trans oil. Luckily didn't break any bones, but rounded off all the corners of me and the bike.

[jabcb]

I've decided to get a USB camera for my cell phone or a digital inspection camera like the one from Harbor Freight.
Any suggestions? (Have an android smartphone)
Maybe a closer look will help me figure out what to do.

Am torn between two solutions mentioned in the other topic:
1) Draining the oil via the inner bolt, cleaning to remove any trace of oil, and then using JB Weld to seal the area between the outer bolt & crankcase.

2) Removing the outer bolt. Then use one of the two solutions in the other thread: a Doorman rubber drain plug or a SMART-O self sealing drain plug.

[ConnerVT]

or maybe 3) Drain oil and clean, inspect to determine rood cause of why oil is leaking (and this Rube Goldberg contraption is present), and make an informed decision how to proceed.

[jabcb]

or maybe 3) Drain oil and clean, inspect to determine rood cause of why oil is leaking (and this Rube Goldberg contraption is present), and make an informed decision how to proceed.

It seems fairly common to have problems with oil pan drain bolts on cars.
The bolt-in-a-bolt drain plug that's currently on the bike & the two alternative drain plugs are marketed for, and are used, on cars.

Doorman is a car parts manufacturer.
They refer to the rain plug that's on the bike as a piggyback drain plug:
http://www.dormanproducts.com/gsearch.a ... rain+plugs
They make the rubber drain plug I've shown:
http://www.dormanproducts.com/p-24514-6 ... n=oesearch
The plug with the o-ring is made by Rapidfix:
http://www.smartoplug.com

[Repeater]

If it leaks a little just let it. The rubber plug works well for a few months then leaks. About 10 cc a week. You also have to reduce it a bit on a bench grinder. Mine leaks through the center threads on the rubber plug. I have nightmares about mine cracking ugg.

[jabcb]

If it leaks a little just let it. The rubber plug works well for a few months then leaks. About 10 cc a week. You also have to reduce it a bit on a bench grinder. Mine leaks through the center threads on the rubber plug. I have nightmares about mine cracking ugg.

The rubber drain plug probably works a lot better on cars with stripped threads, which is the intended application that it was designed for.
The original T500 drain plug bolt is 12mm long. How much of that thread area is left of your bike?

My T500 leaks slowly.
I'm going to take a closer look to see if I can figure out where its leaking from.
After that I'm thinking I'll probably:
1) use the inner bolt to drain the oil.
2) use a torque wrench to see how tight the outer bolt is.
3) if the outer bolt is reasonably tight, I'll clean the area between the bolt & crankcase, and then seal it with JB Weld.

The JB Weld should help slow/stop the leak & help keep the outer bolt from loosening up.

[tz375]

If it were mine and not a daily driver, I'd pull the motor, strip it and send the cases to be welded and machined. But if the leak is more annoying than significant, I might just leave until I had a better reason to strip it.

[jabcb]

Fingers crossed -- I might have it fixed.

There was some of the repair material on the one side in the washer sealing area.
Removed that & carefully torqued down the outer bolt to the Suzuki drain plug spec.
Looks like the leak might have stopped.

Hadn’t seen excess repair material until I fully raised my HarborFreight lift (second of the two safety-bar positions).
Never used the second position before.