When I put the gixxer inverted on the bikes. They were too close to the stem. And off to one side. Redrilled the hole in the stem. And used a standing drum that you put on a drill. About the same size as the stem. And removed just enough of the face of the lock to clear.

got my new fairing protectors from RPM today and promptly drilled a big hole in 2 of them. 
I'm assuming they went missing due to a previous owner breaking the ones that cover the fairing retainer screws.
so I did this so they won't have to be removed and only an FJ purest will know it isn't factory.
I finished leveling out the plug after I took the pic. lol

I had something similar happen and ended up drilling the frame hole a bit bigger.
I don't remember changing locks, so maybe it was when I took everything apart one year. The alignment was pretty tight, so a Dremel shaved off material in the right direction.

Yes Red, I agree with a lot of what you say but we are talking specifically about sump plugs on motorbikes.

My real world experience and my internet experience makes it difficult to believe the FJR guy's version of events, why just his bike?

I hope I made it clear, in a non offensive manner that what you do to your bike is your business but there is no evidence to suggest others should follow your lead on this occasion, if there is, tell me about it.

Noel

Noel,

The "problem" is real; it does exist.  Ask Rbentnail, on the FJR forum.  Safety wire is the sure cure.  The bike racers use safety wire, because ..it happens, and the results can be very costly, in money and for riders.  I will happily admit, my bias toward the use of safety wire comes from my aviation experience.  Multiple engines (producing harmonic vibrations), with nothing solid to damp them out, can disassemble hardware with an ease and speed that is difficult to believe.  Likewise, bikes have less mass (and therefore more "shake") than cars, producing the same issue.

Nobody has to pay any attention to me, or to any other safety wire "advocates."  My safety wire does not hurt anybody else, nor even me.  I do "believe" in threaded assemblies, but only to a certain point.  Where do I draw the line?  Anywhere I want to draw it.  It's my bike, so it's my rules.  No offense intended, but conformity for the sake of conformity sucks.

If there is an oil drain related screw on the FJ that is prone to failure it the small drain screw of the oil filter cannisters. There is no good reason to remove it when changing filters as it doesn't prevent oil from dripping all over the bike during a filter change anyway . I had read in more than one post not to remove it. Despite that I did on an oil change before attending my first RPM rally. When I got torwards the top of the infamous mini dragon hill the rear tire began to feel loose .At the top I discovered oil streaming from the screw and coating my bike and tire. I tried to tighten it but the threads wouldn't hold and it spun before tightening enough to stop the flow of oil. With Randy's help I was able to lay a few pieces of string along the length of the threads and then wrap another string around them to hold them in place. I then installed the screw and the strings provided enough bite to hold the screw in tight and stop the leak for the rest of the ride. I now have the RPM spin on oil filter adaptor on all of my FJ's deleting the troublesome screw and providing better filtration.

Way back in 1992, on our honeymoon (touring Europe two up with Liz) we were riding the FJ up a hill in the Black Forest with many lovely hairpins and beautiful cambered bends when all of a sudden it felt like the back wheel was on ice and the oil light came on.

I managed to pull over and saw the oil all over the back of the bike and the tyre. I traced the source to a weird looking bolt (looked like a cotton bobbin with a threaded stalk on one end) on the side of the sump that was loose and the oil was spewing out around the threads. At the time I fortunately had a spare bottle of oil on the bike and enough tools in the kit to refill the oil and tighten up the bolt, just enough to get us to a nearby dealer to get a proper repair.

It turns out that the dealer who gave the bike a "major service" in preparation for the honeymoon trip, had not bothered removing the exhaust to get the drain bolt out, so they had removed the "gallery plug" to drain the oil....and then lost it.....basically they bodged it and said nothing (I also think they turned the engine over with the plugs out to get the oil out through the gallery bolt hole, but might be wrong in that). Not only did they not drain the oil properly, but they put the "bolt" back in with a fibre washer.......and surprise surprise, it came loose. Their bodge and laziness, could very easily have cost both Liz and myself our lives.

When I got home and tackled the dealer, they apologised and offered to give me another free service......like I'd trust them again with my bike !!!

That was the last time I used an official Yamaha dealer for any mechanical/servicing work. For the last 29 years I've done it all myself, or had it done by the FJOC a couple of times. In my experience, drain plugs don't fail or leak unless you a) abuse them, or b) don't fit them properly !

 nice work around.

Oh I hear you..an isolated case of anything falling off a vehicle and I automatically think operator error. I don't plan on wiring any oil drain plugs on anything.

Doesn't it strike you as a little odd that the only thing to vibrate loose on that guy's FJR was the one bolt he regularly removes and replaces himself?

I have literally seen tens of thousands of vehicles pass through my work places over the years and I've done thousands myself, I can't ever recall a sump plug falling out. I've encountered stripped, cross threaded and finger tight plugs by the dozens but never heard of one falling out.

For a long time it was common for sump plugs to be large diameter, shallow, fine threaded and always hastily refitted between drips, anyone who works with threads will know this is a disaster waiting to happen, and it frequently was. GM, Ford, Chrysler and others all offered No's 1,2 & 3 oversize plugs as genuine spares for just this reason.

Red, your many posts over the years suggest you are knowledgeable, resourceful and a thinker with mechanical nous, I'm surprised you have so little faith in threads. Where do you draw the line, castellated nuts on the rods, wired big ends, cam caps....? If you're going to second guess the engineers, how do you decide what needs wiring and what doesn't?

I have seen countless examples of automotive engineers getting it wrong over my working life but specifying thread pitch, diameter, depth and torque is rarely one of them. Also, there is not one skerrick of verifiable evidence to suggest these plugs come loose anyway.

As I've said to you previously, if you want to wire them, great, do it, just so long as the readers understand you're not doing it to address a known problem.

The only thread related issue I can remember over the last 50+ years was a batch of VW Beetles on which the heads came loose, the factory fix kit was simply a new set of studs with a different thread, problem solved, I fitted heaps of those.

Noel