English French German Italian Spanish

Commando Oil Tank drain plug.

Submitted by peter_merrick1 on Tue, 21/03/2017
Forums
Commando

Good evening all.

Just after spraying my commando oil tank, and with the paint still wet, I dropped it! (The law of sod prevails!)

It landed on the bolt I had used to plug off the tank drain hole. The force on landing was enough to push into the tank the captivated thread that the drain plug screws into. I'm now left with a thin walled blank hole with no thread! (And a poor paint finish!)

I tried experimenting with the steel equivalent of the "Wellnut" (8mm) but the wall thickness of the tank is too thin to obtain a permanent fixture. (In other words the insert will rotate when inserting the drain plug

Can any member offer a way out of this dilemma? Or have a spare oil tank!!!

Thanks Peter (Well drained!)

Submitted by bob_matthews on Wed, 22/03/2017

Permalink

Peter, I can feel your pain, careful as we might, sometimes things just happen!

I'm not sure soft solder is strong enough to resist the tightening of the tank drain hole plug? It may be better to silver solder or braze to avoid the calamity of stripping the whole drain boss off onto the floor :)

Any indentation around where the threaded stub fits into the tank could be pulled back into shape by using an improvised bolt and washer from the inside of the tank and some sort of slide hammer arrangement on the outside. Then allow the braze or silver solder (or soft?) to create a generous fillet around the joint to reinforce the weak thin metal at the joint or junction. Then..... repaint when confident.

Submitted by david_evans on Wed, 22/03/2017

Permalink

Soft solder is more than strong enough unless you are going to lever on the nut to tighten it, It also does not require too much heat but an active flux is ideal and that would need to be cleaned off after. Silver solder is another good method and I used it successfully to make a drain plug within a drain plug for the sump nut on my Commando. Temperatures involved are much higher though. Cup alloys do a cheap good quality silver solder kit with rods, flux, instructions etc. Watching the silver solder run through the joint is a satisfying experience. (yeah I need to get out a bit more)

For soft solder, try and find a bit of plumbers solder and bakers fluid is the ideal flux. Not sure if "elf and safety" allow you to buy this stuff any more. Plumbers solder has lead in it and bakers fluid has sulphuric acid in it. (how did I live this long using these toxic things?)

Submitted by peter_merrick1 on Sun, 02/04/2017

Permalink

Thanks for all you comments chaps, especially to Alan of the Essex section for the offer of a replacement tank.

I made up a "Top Hat" thread of 3/8 UNF and got C.W.Classics of Rawreth, to braze said thread into the tank. This he did the following day. Excellent service and a fair price too.

The paint I had used was "Deco Metal Rust Protection" from Aldi (Made in Germany) Apart from the immediate area where the heat was applied the paint remained good up to within an inch of the brazing!

So on with the show! Lets see what the bike has in store for me next?

Cheers

Peter

 


Norton Owners Club Website by 2Toucans