Can I reuse my drain screw...?

[Matt2matt2002]

If by any chance you lost the screw whilst doing the oil change you would be stuck.

A quote from above.

This just happened to me. Flippin thing fell out into the dirt and garden bark chippings. Spent ages looking for it  but was then able to use the new one I had purchased following  the above comments!
I had reused the old one x3 times.
With my next SJS order I'll be buying x2 more as back up.

[Dave Whittle Thorn Workshop]

Here is an example of why not to screw the drain plug in too far 

[in4]

A lesson learnt there for sure.
Can anyone else see the sinister face reflectiing in the oil? Promise I'm not 'over refreshed'

[mickeg]

Interesting.  That is a good warning to avoid trying to screw things in too tight.

I always screwed in the drain screw to be tight enough, not too tight.  I try not to screw things in too tight when threaded into Aluminum which is softer than steel.  And with the blue loctite on it, I was confident that it did not have to be toooooooooo tight. 

And I put a piece of tape over the screw, not to hold the screw in, but to keep dirt out of the hex hole in the screw so it would be easier to insert a wrench later.  But I am sure that the tape can't hurt if the screw was not tight enough.

After Dave's previous note on dissimilar metal corrosion, I always put new blue loctite on the screw with each oil change, which I will probably be doing in in the near future when I pull the studded tires off the bike.

[bobs]

Hi Dave,

Was that covered by the Rohloff guarantee. 

[Mike Ayling]

I did the oil change on the tandem today.

A nice late summer/early autumn by the calendar day 30C.

I had a blanket under the bike just in case  but I managed to remove and  replace the old screw and install the new drain screw without dropping it!

Cheers

Mike

[RonS]

After dropping the screw during both of the first two oil changes, (found it both times quite by accident as it hadn't bounced where I thought it had) I put a piece of masking (painters) tape over the end of the hex driver when I placed it into the drain screw. It's just tacky enough, and fills in the void, to hold the drain screw to the hex driver when removing or installing the screw.
I also put a blanket down now every time I take small parts off the bike.
Third time lucky!

[Pavel]

A several years old continuing  tread on the smallest part of a Rohloff? Either you gent's are the most thorough minds anywhere, or it's more than just the Rohloff's drain screws that can come loose!

I really appreciate that Dave Whittle chimes in. Wisdom such as his is great value added to this forum and SJS Cycles.