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Stuck Oil Plug - Ugh

2075 Views 5 Replies 4 Participants Last post by TQA, Oct 4, 2009

Michael K

Discussion Starter · Sep 26, 2009

Okay, I'll try to be brief, take full resonsibility for my screwing up (pun and all), and hope someone can offer a solution.

Several months after changing the oil on my Yamaha 9.9 (model year 2000) this spring I noticed a little oil leaking from the drain plug. When I put a box wrench on the plug to snug it tight I must have turned it too hard. The lower half -- the part with the brass head and some of the plastic surround -- came off. The upper half, which is completeley plastic and has a weep hole in the middle, remained in the oil pan. Somehow, I was ready with a container in the event I happened to turn the plug the wrong way; as such I was able to capture all of the oil as it drained out the weep hole.

While ordering a new drain plug I asked a local marine tech how to best remove the upper half. I tried his suggestion today -- using a bolt extractor. A little one that fit the weep hole only made the weep hole bigger. A larger extractor actually achieved some gripping effect but wouldn't budge the remaining part of the oil plug. I'm fairly strong but, as I may have crossed the threads (hence the initial leak) I was afraid of damaging the oil pan itself. I decided I ought to back the extractor out and seek your advice. If you think I should get really aggressive next time, enjoy a little laugh as that larger extractor now needs a replacement -- the first one is sitting under 9' of water.

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TSOJOURNER

· #2 · Sep 26, 2009

If it was me - and I am glad it is not - I would go with a larger and larger bolt extractor. At some point I would expect that it would work.
We're talking EZ outs, right? They look like this:

Eventually, of course, you are going to have to get the piece out. Do whatever it takes, and then you are going to have to re-thread the hole. That will be done one of two ways:
First you may get the job done by using a thread chaser of the correct size. You'll want to do this if the piece comes out and you decide the problem was that you cross-threaded the plug the last time you put it in.

If the threads are ruined and in too bad shape to be re-tapped with a thread chaser, I would go with a HeliCoil and install new threads. Helicoils look like this:

They come with complete instructions and will give you a permanent fix. Basically you will be drilling out the hole, retapping it to accept the Helicoil, and installing your plug into the new Helicoil.

Also: Keep your eye peeled for a plug that is only SLIGHTLY larger than you old one. That way you can just. re-thread to accept the new plug.

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