Modern Vespa

ok, so what comes next? I was changing the oil in our gt 200's, first time I've done it myself. Mine is a 2008, and went swimmingly, her's is a 2006, and the corners of the drain plug rounded right off. That thing is on there severely tight. I've taken off the exhaust and put it on a lift to get better access, and tried with my impact wrench, and it just got worse. Time to drill it out? replace the inner filter as well, since it will probably be damaged by the drill?

thoughts? help?

I would get a flat chisel and tap it round...

A 12 point socket or box wrench will take the corners off a brass bolt head. Much better to use a 6 point tool because it has a better bite.

I went with these guys for a replacement drain plug and o-ring:
http://www.scooterwest.com/item_details/Oil-Drain-Bolt-Most-New-Vespas/1069

http://www.scooterwest.com/item_details/O-Ring-for-Oil-Drail-Nut/1070


When I was nervous about mine.


Good luck with it!


Harvey

Try a bolt out set from Sears... I rounded off the drain plug on my Mini because the service department over torqued it. Used the bolt out and it came right out.

By the way, had to use a 30 inch breaker bar to get the plug off.

I don't know if I worry too much about this sort of thing, but before you take the plug out, make sure you have a proper replacement. I wouldn't want my scooter sitting for any length of time without oil in it. Someone here will correct me if I am wrong.

File this in the hindsight is 20/20 department...

Get a cheap six point socket and grind down the front edge a few mm so the rounded edge of the socket is gone. The head on the drain plug is so shallow, making it easy to round off the head even with a six point socket. There will be more contact area for the socket to turn on.

Not bad advice from a practicality standpoint, but nothing untoward would happen to the internals if it sat for days or weeks sans oil, assuming starting the engine wasn't attempted.

looks like it will have to wait, the local vespa store does have the replacement, so I am going to go grab that, but now it is raining, and I do not have a covered parking spot, off to sears, with the replacement, to see if they have a bolt remover big enough. The on's I saw online only go up to a 22mm, and its a 24mm. At least she can still ride it for now, since I haven't been able to drain it.

I don't have any experience with a stripped drain plug but have plenty of experience with stripped nuts and bolts. Once I've determined that nut is stripped, I generally try large vice grips. I don't know how the brass will stand up to that kind of abuse; steel seems to be fine. I generally start with a relatively light grip and increase if the vicegrips slip off. Wear gloves so you don't damage your knuckles/hands on some part of the bike.

Have you talked to a mechanic? There are likely other tricks like hitting it with nitrogen to lower the temperature which shrinks the metal which should loosen it up but I have no direct experience with this.

Drilling it out could be tricky - you don't want to damage the threads on the engine casing. I'd make that the last resort.

You might also try an easy out but my guess is that the hard steel of the easy out will probably tear the brass.

You're not the first person to do this so I'm sure there's a well known solution.

BTW, how'd it get so tight? Did you use a torque wrench to tgihten it or just tighten it by feel? Torquing soft metal parts is important to make sure its tight enough and not so tight that it won't come off.

Let us know how it turns out.
Miguel

agreed. always use a 6pt socket as your first resort. if that does not work, i suggest using a grip-tite rounded bolt remover socket from sears. 12pt sockets often ruin 6pt bolts.

a set of ignition combination wrenches will do the same thing. they are like tiny combination wrenches.

Snap on a Vise-Grip and turn the drain plug counter-clockwise. Off she comes. Install a new drain plug and o-ring. If it won't budge heat the case around the drain plug with a hair dryer then freeze the stripped drain plug with some aerosol chewing gum remover, turn counter-clockwiser. It will come off.

i don't know if that really works, but that is awesome. i would love to watch that. i have been an electrician for 15 years and i love to see new methods that work.

i rightfully respect ingenuity.

You can get aerosol chewing gum remover from any cleaning supply house. Shoot the drain bolt for 10 seconds (once the case is hot) and the temperature differential will assist in removal.

love it.

No problem sitting empty, just don't start it up.

They are shipped dry from Pontadera, or wherever. That is why you pay big bucks for pre-delivery and all that good stuff.

Had that problem. I cut a vertical slot in the plug, and used a small nail puller which gave me sufficient leverage to break it loose. I replaced with a brass plug so as to eliminate the "freezing" of the OEM alloy plug.
No problems since.

Very difficult to get off. To make matters worse the 24mmbolt head is shallow. Next time I would recommend welding a 22 mm nut onto the existing bolt. It will give the socket more chance to grab.
Do t know why Piaggio did this. It would have been better with a 22mm Allen

They actually come with the factory fill oil in. They do test the engines at the factory on a Dyno to ensure correct power output and fully set the bike engine parameters. The bike is shipped with that same oil in the sump. No need to drain it for shipping.

Remind me to never wait for you to answer a question I post.

This works but requires the sump to to be heated quickly. A hair dryer is not fast enough. It will take too long to reach a meaningful temperature which will cause too much heat to transfer to the sump plug. This will reduce the effectiveness of the operation. Instead use a HEAT GUN. It will work. Do forget you need the engine to be COLD when he does this and the cold oil will make it hard to heat the crankcase meaningfully so you need lots of heat, then cold on the sump plug. But honestly I doubt it needs anything more than a good tap round with light hammer and chisel. We save the heat for things that really need it. The plugs are only torqued to 22nm and they can suffer from "sticktion" making it seem like they are overtightened. Usually they are not. But must use a 6 sided socket.

Good luck.

Was the engine hot when you tried to loosen it?

We revived an 11 year old thread to tell them how to fix it???

Presumably he's been standing there with the hair dryer, becoming increasingly pissed off over 11 years.

Crikey, hadn't even noticed that it was an older thread!

Lol...