Help and advice wanted... but preferably help.

One of the bolts holding the oil filler neck in place has stripped in the crankcase (alternator side). I've tried a longer bolt but there's no room for a nut at the bottom.

Can anyone with the appropriate skills help me drill and retap this thread, or at least let me know what I need to do. I'm reluctant to tackle this myself though.

With one bolt in place, would a large cable tie hold the filler neck in place tightly enough to act as a temporary bodge?

Cheers,

Aidan

Couldn't you go to m8 and use an m8 bolt? Fairy easy DIY fix of you have a tap ad die set (he says!!)

I doubt a cable tie will have the required clamping force to hold it down leak free, your best bet is to buy an m8 tap and carefully retap it with that. Shouldn't be any need to drill it as it's already 7mm and the drill size for m8 is smaller than that by a smidge. It's ally so it's like cheese, hence the original stripped. A tap won't cost very much, but make sure you buy a bolt that's the same pitch as the tap.

I reckon it'd be a piece of piss to helicoil it once everything is out of the way.
You're welcome to borrow my helicoiling kit.
I'll bung it in the post if you want.

Helicoil. If you were nearer I'd come round and help you do it, but (as Lenny has already said) you're welcome to borrow my helicoil kit.

Thanks for the tips and offers guys. After a while spent trying to file a nut down to fit under the flange, it was suggested that an M6 bolt would have a smaller nut (cheers Jono).

I've done that, with washers top and bottom, and it's clamped up tight.

Do you reckon that'll do the job as a long term bodge, or should I still be looking at retapping or helicoiling?

You've probably got more chance of answering that than us Aidan, by whether or not it's leaking in a couple of weeks time. If it were me I'd probably leave it until an opportunity to tap or helicoil presented it's self.

Yo! Had the same problem as you, and used the same solution!
So far, 1 year and 25k miles on, it's totally leak free. I did use a bit of hylomar on the surfaces - don't know if that helped with the leakproofiness.

Matthew.