We just got home with a very nice 85 250R. It has original tires, handelbars, wheels, lights, reeds, carb, piston, head gasket, tin sprocket skidplate, all very nice paint and graphics, even the parking brake is still functional and the swingarm still has its PRO-LINK badging. Overall a very complete and clean trike (to be 20 years old) It reportedly has had less than ten gallons of gas run through it in since about 1990. We rebuilt the carb (VARNISH), drained and cleaned the tank, changed the plug to a BR8ES and it jumped off perfectly (four slow kicks). We rode it for about ten minutes and decided to complete our task of changing all the fluids.

Well, we found our first problem with the bike... The drainplug was a bolt that had been JB Welded into the cases. No threads left at all. SO what would be the best way to fix it? Heli-coil, self tapping oversized drain plug, rubber boat plug, etc. I just need ideas. Overall I feel that the bike is still a good unit just based on its condition (it has more compression than my 86 TRX) and think it was worth what we paid for it, but the drain plug concerns me. What should I do. Normally I would just tap it and use a bigger plug, but I would like this bike to stay as factory as possible...

 

Any ideas, I really need to get this fixed before MLK...

 

i would try to tap the same size hole, if that doesent work then you have no choice but to go bigger. i had problems with mine coming off so i bought a magnetic bolt and use lock tight

 

Mine is the same way, if you havent already took it out then leave it! They probly tightened it to much and pieces broke off of the case. If you did take it out put it back in with more JB weld. Good luck re taping an aluminum case... If you have to drain the oil just tip the bike completly sideways on its right side and take the bolt you use to check the oil with out and let it drain.

 

a helicoil should do the job no problem
but i never had to do mine, im sure sme one else here will have

 

We tapped the case, no problems. Sometimes it helps to have an uncle that is a machineists. We used a pipe plug and it is holding fine. We just used some anti-gnaring compound on the plug and have had pretty good luck.

 

nevermind i was wrong.

 

If you have stripped a 12mm oil drain bolt (250R) you can re-tap the hole to 14mm X 1.25 and replace the bolt with a Suzuki LT250R drain bolt.