Date:         Sat, 30 Dec 1995 10:30:08 -0500
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         dlm202@psu.edu (Dave Mancuso)
Subject:      Stripped Drain Plug Hole--How I Corrected(?) It

The situation:
1)      While changing the oil, the drain plug hole stripped when I took
the bolt out. (I mean, it was bad--pieces came out on the bolt and
everything. I've NEVER had this happen to me on an oil change. I kinda feel
like the van let me down).
2)      Go to the local VW dealer. They tell me to tap it out and put a
threaded insert in. Sounds logical. So they sell me an insert, but don't
have a tap or drill bit. They give me the sizes I need, call a few places
for me, write it all down for me, wish me good luck (not a bad dealer,
except for one problem we get to later).
3)      I visit several places, looking for a 14mm by 1.5 tap, and a bit.
One place has the tap! No bit , but maybe I can tap it out w/out drilling.
I'm saved! (I thought).
4)      I go back to the van, tap out the 13mm hole to 14mm. Oil is still
flowing out the hole (dripping), rinsing out the metal shavings (mostly
down the channels of the tap and onto my hand, but that's OK).
5)      The moment of truth. I put the insert in to test the hole and--it
doesn't go. It's too big. I look at the tap against the insert. It's
obviously a mm or two too small. I had wondered about this at the VW
dealer, because the insert just looked more that one mm wider than the bolt
it was on, but the numbers they wrote down seemed so "official."
6)      I call back the place that had my tap. They have no larger tap.
Hmmm. So I go get a 14 mm bolt, put the copper washer on it, and screw it
in. It fits. I'm afraid to tighten it too much, so I tighten it as much as
I think will work. I fill it up. I drive around. It doesn't leak.

I'm just afraid that tapping a hole out to only one mm larger than the
stripped hole does not give me a strong enough new threaded hole. Should I
be worried? What do you think?
I'm calling around to machine shops in the area to see what they think.

--Dave

=====================================
dlm202@psu.edu
Dave Mancuso

'87 Vanagon (Kalypso)
'89 Jetta