Does anyone Know where to get an oil drain valve that will fit a vanagon
About 7 years ago I bought this nifty brass on/valve at Kragens for my
Toyota truck it made oil changing a snap, I just shove a pan under my truck
opened the valve  and Voila! and it never leaked , However no one seems to
sell it anymore. any leads? Maybe I could I make my own .
-----Original Message-----
From: Bert x. Kyzer <kyzer_b@M3.SPRYNET.COM>
To: Vanagon@VANAGON.COM <Vanagon@VANAGON.COM>
Date: Saturday, June 06, 1998 3:13 PM
Subject: Alternative to Oil Drain Plug

>Does anyone know of an alternative way to drain the oil from a '86 Vanagon
GL 2.1 besides the normal
>drain plug?  BMP designs sells a "Top Side Oil Changer" that uses a hand
vacuum pump (just like Austin
>Power's) to draw the oil out of the dipstick tube for $49.95 but I don't
want to have to store the
>thing.
>
>I'm thinking the oil could be drained from the the oil pressure sender
instead?
>
>My stripped oil drain plug was repaired with a heli-coil.  Last oil change
I used blue locktite on the
>drain plug as a precaution against the bolt vibrating out and to stop a
leak.  Now its time to change
>the oil again and I'm worried that when the drain plug is loosened the
locktite will prevent the plug
>from separating from the helicoil and consequently strip out the threads on
the case.  Perhaps my logic
>is faulty but I know the helicoil compresses to thread into the case and
once the drain plug is in there
>the helicoil can no longer compress.  If both bolt and coil try to come out
at once the Threads Per
>Inch or Pitch will be different enough to cross thread the softer alloy
case.
>
>I'm told the only permanent fix to the stripped plug is to tear down the
bottom end, weld the original
>hole closed, then redrill it using a jig or fixture (so the hole is
straight) and tap new threads.  This
>is obviously expensive won't fix the basic design flaw of the short reach
threads in a soft alloy.
>
>Any suggestions and or flames would be appreciated (just don't send the
flames to the whole list)
>
>I wasn't able to access the archives so please forgive if this is a
re-hash.
>