Rubber drain plug?

[Mike_James]

Hello everyone,

'91, 12k miles.  This is my first bike which I bought about a year ago.  Big fan of the forum.  Until now I have never felt the need to post because everything I have encountered with my GS has already been covered here.  Thank you everyone.

However, I think I've got something...my oil drain plug is just a rubber stopper.  No screw, no washer, just rubber.  Has anyone seen this?  Why would someone use a rubber plug?  Maybe because the threads were stripped and the rubber plug was a feasible solution?  The first time I changed my oil I was a little concerned, but I re-used it anyway, and no leaks, no problems.  I just changed the oil for the second time, and I'm noticing leaks, so I'm getting suspicious.

I'd like to check the threads, so does anyone know the thread size?  Also, any comments on the rubber plug would be greatly appreciated.  Thanks in advance.

[davipu]

so my question is what kind of idiot puts a rubber plug in there?

[Mike_James]

I have no idea.
I don't know much about the bike's past.  I bought it from a guy who was selling it for his neighbor that moved abroad.  Regardless how shady the story was, for such a cheap price I thought I'd take a chance.

[snowhownd]

Is your local Suzuki dealer close?  Perhaps the easiest thing would be to go buy a new plug and try it in there... can't imagine it would cost more than $5 or so.  Even if it is stripped and you have to rethread it at least you have an idea of what type/length of bolt to look to replace it with.

[dgyver]

Stop riding the bike until you have a proper plug installed.

My guess is that the threads in the oil pan are stripped so he stuck in what ever would fit. Get a new plug and if it does not tighten properly then you may need to replace the oil pan. Some have tapped the oil pan to accept a standard pipe plug.

[Mike_James]

It sounds like the rubber plug is definetly no good.

I put in about 500 mile with the rubber plug, and there weren't any obvious problems (i.e. leaking oil or having the plug pop out).  So I guess I'll start looking around for a real plug.

I'm still interested in knowing the thread size so I could possibly get a bolt from the hardware store and just check if the threads are intact.  If they're not I'll know a little sooner what I've got ahead.

Thanks for the input.