• Ciao Guest - You’ve landed at the ultimate Guzzi site. NEW FORUM REGISTRATIONS REQUIRE EMAIL ACTIVATION - CHECK YOUR SPAM FOLDER - Use the CONTACT above if you need help. New to the forum? For all new members, we require ONE post in the Introductions section at the bottom, in order to post in most of the other sections. ALWAYS TRY A SEARCH BEFORE STARTING A NEW TOPIC - Most questions you may have, have likely been already answered. DON'T BE A DRIVE-BY POSTER: As a common courtesy, check back in and reply within 24 hours, or your post will be deleted. Note there's decades of heavily experienced Guzzi professionals on this site, all whom happily give endless amounts of their VALUABLE time for free; BE COURTEOUS AND RESPECTFUL!
  • There is ZERO tolerance on personal attacks and ANY HYPERLINKS to PRODUCT(S) or other competing website(s), including personal pages, social media or other Forums. This ALSO INCLUDES ECU DIAGnostic software, questions and mapping. We work very hard to offer commercially supported products and to keep info relevant here. First offense is a note, second is a warning, third time will get you banned from the site. We don't have the time to chase repeat (and ignorant) offenders. This is NOT a social media platform; It's an ad-free, privately funded website, in small help with user donations. Be sure to see the GTM STORE link above; ALL product purchases help support the site, or you can upgrade your Forum profile or DONATE via the link above.
  • Be sure to see the GTM STORE link also above for our 700+ product inventory, including OEM parts and many of our 100% Made-in-SoCal-USA GTM products and engine kits. In SoCal? Click the SERVICE tab above for the best in service, tires, tuning and installation of our products or custom work, and don't miss our GT MotoCycles® (not) art on the BUILDS tab above. WE'RE HERE ONLINE ONLY - NO PHONE CALLS MADE OR RECEIVED - DO NOT EMAIL AND ASK QUESTIONS OR ASK TO CALL YOU.
  • Like the new V100, GuzziTech is full throttle into the future! We're now running on an all-new server and we've updated our Forum software. The visual differences are obvious, but hopefully you'll notice the super-fast speed. If you notice any glitches or have any issues, please post on the Site Support section at the bottom. If you haven't yet, please upgrade your account which is covered in the Site Support section or via the DONATE tab above, which gives you full site access including the DOWNLOADS section. We really appreciate every $ and your support to keep this site ad-free. Create an account, sign in, upgrade your account, and enjoy. See you on the road in 2024.

How to remove a stuck, spinning gearbox oil drain bolt?

Juan1

Just got it firing!
Joined
Apr 15, 2019
Messages
24
Location
California
Well, some of the bloom is off the rose with my new Norge. Having obtained a used bike, I went about performing standard maintenance. The CARC oil was changed without incident, drain bolt torqued to 20 NM with a beam style torque wrench. Did the gearbox oil, and dropped the drain plug in the pink oil. Reinstalled the drain plug and torqued it only to find the threads were stripped, likely in the soft aluminum. It was partially my fault for not reinstalling the washer that was hiding in the pink goop, but I never got near 20 NM. Now when I try to remove the gearbox drain bolt, it just spins but won't come out. The oil drain bolt, which was also loose, also stripped before getting anywhere near 20 NM though I had the washer in place. I plan to fix the block's stripped aluminum threads with Time-Serts next weekend, but these questions need to be address first:

1. How can I get the darn gearbox drain bolt out? I realized I'll need to drop the pipe, but do I just get my vice grips, pull down while turning and pray?

2. I'll likely need to move the gearbox plug forward of the "RH Plate" that connects the centerstand to the frame, to get the re-threading tools in there. See the faded plate in the attached diagram. Is there a simple trick to moving the gearbox plug forward of that plate, or will I be spending time removing that plate?

3. I know with the oil drain bolt I can just drop the oil pan and remove all metal shavings. With the gearbox the best I can do to remove metal shavings is to work slowly, frequently clean the tap as well as the hole, swab out the tapped area , and finally flush with fluid. Should that be sufficient to remove metal shavings? Frame I MOTO GUZZI MOTO GUZZI MOTORCYCLES 1200 NORGE 2007 Norge IE 21
 
A two handed operation, try and get two thin flat blade screwdrivers between the bolt and the case and twist to apply pressure, then use a socket to undo or your vice grips. I rarely use a torque wrench unless on critical parts, you get a feel after a while, tighten and then nip it up. I think you call it "wrench art".
To collect the shaving off the tap, smear it with grease.
 
The threads will have some oil residue on them so when you use a torque wrench you don't get a true value and over torquing occurs. I too use the "feel" method for these bolts and for any small fasteners. It's just too easy to strip them and they don't need to be super tight to seal.
Like Kevin said try to pry under the bolt while turning it.
 
The key is to tap the hole square. If you don't it will never seal properly. Not easy to do from below. Also coat the tap with grease to catch metal shavings. A short helicoil should do the trick. Good luck. And like the others have said. Leave the torque wrench in the tool box for these items.
 
And like the others have said. Leave the torque wrench in the tool box for these items.
Will do, though I think the threads were in bad shape when I bought the used bike. Never had a problem using the torque specs on any of my Japanese bikes, Ducatis, or even my Griso.
 
I might add you've been kinda lucky , 40 plus years of wrenching on motorcycles and the Guzzi
drain bolts ( trans and rear drive box) have stripped on every one of mine ,(literally zero on other brands)
and the number of threads is marginal at best and the case alloy is soft as ear wax :) . Peter
 
Trouble is the Guzzi bolt is 17mm and consequently a 17mm spanner is quite long and you get to much leverage on it. On an old Honda I had these bolts were 12mm and the spanner was half the length so you couldn't "crank it up"
 
A two handed operation, try and get two thin flat blade screwdrivers between the bolt and the case and twist to apply pressure, then use a socket to undo or your vice grips. I rarely use a torque wrench unless on critical parts, you get a feel after a while, tighten and then nip it up. I think you call it "wrench art".
To collect the shaving off the tap, smear it with grease.
I should probably follow up. I dropped the oil pan, installed a time-sert, and then made the oil pan the cleanest part on the bike That gave me a good idea of the number of metal shavings involved. I did the gearbox next using grease on all the time-sert bits to catch shavings. Then I ran compressed air into the fill area, leaving everything to escape from the drain hole. After that I inserted the magnetic drain bolt and removed it. Then I flushed with ~400ML of dirty gearbox oil, followed by another round of compressed air. Finally, I added fresh fluids. 50 miles later and everything looks and feels fine.
 
I had to tighten the heck out of the Guzzi recommended UFI oil filter to keep it from leaking. I've learned my lesson with trusting the damn manual and will go with a Bosch next time.
 
Apparently many have found that the UFI oil filters leak. MGNA recommends a Bosch oil filter if you find that UFI filters leak. Since I had to tighten the UFI more than usual to stop the filter from self-lubing on the outside, I will ignore the manual and use a Bosch filter next time.
 
Apparently many have found that the UFI oil filters leak. MGNA recommends a Bosch oil filter if you find that UFI filters leak. Since I had to tighten the UFI more than usual to stop the filter from self-lubing on the outside, I will ignore the manual and use a Bosch filter next time.

You want to torque the oil filter to 15Nm so it won't leak. Also I put a bit of chassis grease on the rubber seal. It gets the filter tighter as it is lubed and with the grease it will release when you want to remove the filter.
 
Back
Top