This is my 5th atv so I'm no beginner. I was performing my first oil change on my atv and this happened - I had just finished draining the oil out of the atv so I put the drain plug in to tighten to honda specs with my torque wrench and then it happened it turned and got loose. I double checked my wrench and it was set correctly. I have beat myself up about this already so go easy here, I don't know exactly what happened.

I took it to a local shop that I care nothing about but they were open on saturdays so I dropped it off. They felt like a heli-coil would do the trick. Got a call today saying it would not work. I would need a new case half. Part alone $500. I told them I would just come pick it up.

Any proven less expensive ways to fix my problem here? I did a search on this forum and found were one person that seemed to know what they were talking about stated the following:

If it's the engine oil drain you're talking about...normally they can be fixed with a heli-coil also, however the Rancher models are a different beast. The Rancher is a dry sump engine, with the oil tank being internal (unlike the 400EX and Rubicon which have external tanks). If you look at the engine oil drain threads on a Rancher, you'll see they have a rather wide slot cut in them. For this reason, a heli-coil (or any other thread repair I know of) will interfere with the exchange of oil inside the engine. According to Honda...you cannot heli-coil the engine drain on this model. Also, I know of one case where it was attempted and major engine damage resulted. For this reason, the only acceptable fix for a stripped engine oil drain on the Rancher series engine is case half replacement.


I need some help here, thanks in advance.

 

Try a slightly larger drain plug, but if the threads are stripped, that might not be completely reliable.

Can't one just retap the hole????

 

Take a look at the photo in this link. You can see how there's kind of a slot cut into the boss that the drain plug's bore goes through, and how it can apparently break off...

Hopefully that's not what happened to yours, but if they are saying it needs a new case, that might be what you've got.

http://www.highlifter.com/foru...blems/m_2888977/tm.htm

 

Well I'm screwed. It did break off inside. Will cost in the neighborhood of $1200 total to fix. If I wasn't so sick about this I would be pissed. It's my fault, I'm to blame. Never had this problem before and can't believe it stripped so easily. Take Note everyone be easy when tightening!

Thanks for the help guys.

 

Holy snappin crap!!! I usually tighten mine by feel with a standard ratched so not too much torque is applied and never had a problem, i'm not one of those people that tighten until your red in the face though!!!

 

I'd say if you tightened it to Honda's specs with a torque wrench, it really isn't your fault.

This to me doesn't seem that well designed, that part of the casing breaks off inside if you overtighten the drain plug and it ruins the case...

Anyway, I wonder if there is any way to permantly block the factory drain hole? Then maybe put a drain in somewhere else, or you would have to vacuum out the oil every change- which would still be better than $1200 for a new case.

 

is there room to braze/weld a nut to the outside and then just run your oil plug into that? Other option is to braze/weld the oil plug in and use a vacuum pump to pull the oil out for changes until you can locate a used engine. You might be able to drill the oil plug and tap it and just live with a smaller drain plug that threads into your oil plug. Braze/weld it in as i said before. I would sure look at other options because a used engine will cost less than $1200 so you don't really have a lot to loose.

 

Update:

It's been a while since I posted anything in regards to the disaster that happened to me with the stripped bolt. But it has taken this long for everything to get resolved and repaired.

One of the guys from the service department sent an email to the local rep for Honda explaining what happened to me and that it did in fact break part of the case on the inside. The service guy told me that "maybe" they will cover the cost of the parts +/-$300. That will help you towards the estimated $1200 dollar charge - $900 being the estimated cost for 15 man hours. (I called another dealer and got the same quote.)

Anyway, it took nearly 2-1/2 weeks to hear back from Honda rep. The rep told them that another dealer about 60 miles from where I live had a report of the same thing happening to their customer.

The long and short of it, Honda ended up covering "All" costs in the repair of my atv. Parts and Labor. My local dealer said he had never seen Honda do that before. His gut feeling was there may be a recall coming on specific rancher atvs?

It took the local dealer here a little longer than expected to get all the parts and get everything done - (They had a seal go bad and had to order another one) but I cannot complain about that. I want it right!

In closing, in all honesty I performed that oil change as I had done numerous times before on past atv's, I did nothing different. I did it correctly. There was just something existing - a disaster waiting to happen when I started turning that drain bolt in. IMO.

 

Well, I'm glad they took care of you.

To me, this doesn't seem to live up to Honda's usual design standards. It is predictable that oil drain threads can get boogered up, and having to replace the case when it happens to me could have been better thought out.

 

So I also have a 2007 Rancher and earlier today did my first oil change and guess what, same thing happened and I was even using a torque wrench set to the specified ft/lb's. I quickly took of the skid guard hoping that there was a seperate oil pan and it would be an easy fix, when I noticed it was strait to the casing I was pissed. After that I let all the new oil out back into the containers so I could check the damage and out came the broken piece with the oil.

Gooseman if you are still around I would love to get some info on how you were able to get Honda to cover this. I am hoping since I was using a torque wrench they will help me out with this but who knows. I am going to call the dealer where I purchased the bike tomorrow.

Is there a bunch of other reports of this. This is the first bad experience I have had with Honda.