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Working on my friends 45 and he has question he ask me to post.
The inspection plug on the left side of his motor became stripped, hes not sure how it happened!!!
Anywho he has asked is there any good way of repairing it without taking the motor apart????
I mention a wine cork but I also ate lead paint chips as a kid.😳
There is an article in this month Classic Easyriders that talks about you issue. They discuss re-tapping in a built motor and welding if the cases are split. Give it a read.
They discuss over size tapping with lots of grease and patience to limit the amount of shavings that enter the motor. Sounds a little sketchy, but sometimes we gotta do what we gotta do. Good luck.
I see that 45 restoration company has a 11/16 tap with a new chrome plug, to fix stripped out plug hole.
Has anyone out there done this is ? And if so did it work out?
Im kind of concerned about alum shaving being pushed inside of the motor.
Scottie p
Last edited by Scottie p; Aug 8, 2022 at 03:14 PM.
The BEST solution is to tear it down and weld it like johnzzzz mentioned.
As Architect mentioned above, you can tap the new threads using a larger tap with lots of grease on it.
The grease is supposed to catch the metal chips and keep them from falling into the crankcase.
This technique works pretty well for tapping new spark plug threads on a flat 6 Porsche 911 engine,
In that case, the cylinders are horizontal and you can vacuum the bulk of the chips out.
Does it work well for a WL? I'm guessing 50/50 chance.
Are the threads THAT bad?
Could you use the normal size tap with grease on it to clean up what threads you have?
LESS chips to worry about. You could also use pipe thread tape to tighten the connection.
I would say theres about 20%threads left.
I did try wrapping it with pipe thread tape but it works so so ! with little effort it still will turn, and the way these old boy vibrate its something I dont want to fall out.
I guess I know what the answer is being a perfectionist!!! Take it apart and weld and tap you only cry once
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Stripped inspection plug
