Tiny hole drilled in drain screw

Joe Schlaberdowski · Sep 21, 2020

The drain plug on my right fork leg ('74 850) kept leaking. I took the machine screw out and tried a new washer, but to no avail. It kept slowly leaking. So then I checked for roughness in the tapped bottom of the fork. All ok. And then I looked at the screw. There was a tiny hole drilled at the bottom of the slot for the flat head screwdriver! It was out very close to the edge, but didn't cut through the edge. It was perfectly done, not touching the wall of the slot, and still perfectly round. Anyone know why this might have been done? It just got me curious. By the way I see no provision for uploading the picture I took of it. That would have made it perfectly clear.

texasSlick · Sep 21, 2020

The Gremlins did it!

p400 · Sep 21, 2020

Joe Schlaberdowski · Sep 21, 2020

Another tiny drilled hole? What in the world for?

Hortons Norton · Sep 21, 2020

Safety wire?

Joe Schlaberdowski · Sep 21, 2020

p400 said:
View attachment 18819

Seen end on, mine goes all the way through. And it's purpoefully and very neatly done. It's not a totally trivial thing to do. At least some effort involved.

Bernhard · Sep 21, 2020

Hortons Norton said:
Safety wire?

Just what I was going to say - someone must have gone racing sometimes.

maylar · Sep 21, 2020

A safety wire would go through the head, not through the screw.

Joe Schlaberdowski · Sep 21, 2020

maylar said:
A safety wire would go through the head, not through the screw.

Actualy it does go through thehead and does not touch the screw threads (just off to one side of the threads). Wish I could have posted my photo. BUT the safety wire would NOT have gone through vertically, parallel to the axis of the threads. If a wire went through that way, how could the head of the screw seat and fulfill it's mission of preventing oil from leaking out. Or even seat properly in any securing function, being made lopsided by the existance of the wire on one side?

acotrel · Sep 21, 2020

When I was running my T250 on methanol, I took the drain screws out of the Mikunis to drill them to make it easier to get the fuel out of the carbs after racing. They had already been drilled as standard. You just slacken them and the fuel runs out and the white crap does not form. With your bike, somebody might have been playing with different viscosities in fork oil. Have a look and see if there is another hole in the thread going sideways.

gortnipper · Sep 21, 2020

p400 said:
View attachment 18819

That looks like a piece of debris in the slot, not a drilled hole.

Joe Schlaberdowski · Sep 21, 2020

gortnipper said:
That looks like a piece of debris in the slot, not a drilled hole.

It may "look" like that in the photograph, but it is indeed a neat wire guage drill bit hole that goes all the way through. By the way, that is not "mine own", but someone elses. Nevertheless, the hole is in the same position and, in the photo (that I did not succeed in uploading), the way I'm holding it for the photograph you can see the pink coloration of my finger through the hole.

gortnipper · Sep 21, 2020

Joe Schlaberdowski said:
It may "look" like that in the photograph, but it is indeed a neat wire guage drill bit hole that goes all the way through. By the way, that is not "mine own", but someone elses. Nevertheless, the hole is in the same position and, in the photo (that I did not succeed in uploading), the way I'm holding it for the photograph you can see the pink coloration of my finger through the hole.

Yes, i was talking about the pic P400 posted, with the Andover Norton watermark.

Tiny hole drilled in drain screw

Similar threads