A Word of Caution on Oil Gallery Plugs

[ericfreeman]

One of my oil gallery plugs was seeping a little oil so I bought some new O-rings from BikeBandit. I used a large 12mm hex wrench to remove the plug/cap and fitted the new O-Ring. Went to snug down the plug but it felt strange when I seated it all the way. Put the wrench back on it and POP, off came the outer portion of the cap! Turns out the outer section is very thin aluminum and if you even THINK about snugging down the plug it will break off. Fortunately, the remaining part of the plug just unscrews with finger pressure so no problems there.

The big downside: parts are no longer available from Honda and you have to source them elsewhere at great expense. Only other alternative to expensive, used OEM ($35 per plug!!) is to buy the TAS plugs designed for an oilpressure gauge (about $15 each). You can plug the threaded hole for the gauge and just use the plugs as you would OEM. They appear to be much beefier in construction so less likely to snap off.

Moral of the story: be VERY gentle when you fit the OEM plugs. Only apply enough force to seat the cap/o-ring and nothing more!!

Eric

[daves79x]

Eric:
Just ask - many of us have a lot of those laying around we'd practically give away. Do you still need one?

Dave

[ericfreeman]

Eric:
Just ask - many of us have a lot of those laying around we'd practically give away. Do you still need one?

Dave

Thanks Dave but I've taken care of it.

Eric

[Don]

True, they're cast (and then machined) and they are a bit thin but then the threads aren't tapered - You can thread them in with just your fingers until the O-ring touches and then they just need another turn or so to make them snug enough for the O-ring to seal

I drilled one to install a tapered oil temp gauge sender. Screwing the senders pipe threads tight (with no O-ring to seal it) should have the effect of trying to explode the cap but I had no problem installing it and never broke one in the process - I got a full 4 or 5 threads in the hole which sealed the sending unit just fine. If you do use one to install a sending unit, make sure you get the drill exactly centered and then align the hex of the sender with the hex of the cap so that when you install the cap, the deep socket you use will turn only the cap and not touch the sending unit

If you do break one, they're almost a dime a dozen - Lots of members here have them hanging around by the tens . . . . George was offering to give them away awhile back, which is how I got mine

If anyone needs one drilled and tapped for a sender, I'll do it and install your sender in it if you send it to me - It's not all that difficult, but you do need to be precise

Don

[alimey4u2]

Thanks for the reminder Eric, It's been a while since I pulled mine. Always good to have a note of awareness...

[twinegar]

I learned the hard way in 2008 and bought two replacements from some place that is heavier. It was either from the CBX place that went under or Tim"s.

[piit]

Hi, you mean like in picture. This happened to me couple wks ago when removing plug...first it felt loose when removing...after reinstalled it had hair crack and oil was leaking slightly ...it could not handle the second screw in ...currently the oil gauge is substitute for plug
If someone still have these plugs I would need one to me and one to my uncle (he wants to have original plug before removing oil gauge from his CBX).
Money will change the owner for sure