Another Front Diff Drain Plug Stripped

i bought that but still need to remove the old one. havent figured out how to do that yet. the countersunk is completely stripped now. might try jb weld the socket or bolt on there.

 

It's Metric man.
Clean it out.
Use the right size.
I've never had any issues

 

10mm

 

Yep
Clean it out -Correctly-
Tap in gently to bottom, no problems.

 

yeah, cleaned it up really good. shiny brand new, made sure the 10mm is in all the way.

wouldn't budge it, in fact stripped the screw, not the allen, the screw. the metal seems to be soft. moved to a T55 torx, stripped the head even more.

liquid wrench every day for 4 days letting it soak.

unfortunately, in my case, didn't work. I will get it one way or another.

 

Holy carp.
Them boys with the tools, loctite too?

 

yes sir, ridiculous.

 

After reading all the horror stories I was nervous when I went to change mine, it broke free no problem. I probably should have changed to the Lexus style while I was at it.

 

weld a grade 8 nut to it, the heat will free up and then zip off with the impact. Same method used to get stuck exhaust manifold studs.

 

i used map gas and an air chisel to remove mine.... I think some of the people who didnt have problems with this probably dont live in the rust belt.... but who knows!

 

so you heated it up, then chiseled it to loosen?

 

yes. the heat is necessary. and you need to get a good angle with the chisel... i bought an air chisel from lowes. worked for me! id rater spend money on a tool, than pay someone else to do it for me...

 

Went through the same exact problem a few months ago. A small cold chisel and a ball peen hammer worked for me after running it onto my ramps so I had a decent amount of room to swing! I "gently" hammered a groove and then started laying into it, checking every 2-3 smacks to make sure I wasn't messing up the case or anything. After about 5 solid minutes of serious hits, it broke loose and came out the rest of the way with my fingers.

The best part was when I looked over the frame/leaf spring receipt a week later, only to find that the PO had had Toyota replace all the diff fluids just a year earlier...

Good luck, man!

 

I got mine out with a tool from a company called Kaon. Worked great but was a little pricey.

 

When i did all the drivetrain fluid replacement it was only the rear of course that showed any need being the ones that used 100% of the time. When i did the transfer case and front diff they were in great shape and only did them since i had all the parts and wanted to swap in Amsoil Severe gear 75W90

Seeing how clean the front diff was and the fact that I probably use 4WD 1% of the time I cant see any reason I would ever need to replace it more than once.. Even though i did replace the front drain plug with a hex head stainless I doubt i will ever need to actually remove it.

So does it seem that people are replacing the front fluid so often ? Or is it that it has never been replaced and its the first removal of the hex head drain plug that's causing the grief?

 

Many times these plugs are over torqued.

It is a drain plug, like the oil pan drain plug, it doesn't need mega torque to hold non-pressurized fluid. Use a new gasket, then tight enough to not leak.

I had to use a 3 lb Blacksmith hammer and a cold chisel to remove my front diff plug. Reinstalled with a new gasket and firmly tight, nothing near the Torque specd in the maintenance literature. 6 months no leaks...... I don't think it needs to be tighter.

 

I had issues too.
New Allen socket, cleaned out the old plug real good, hammered it in etc..... still stripped. BTW, Penetrating oil wont help. its a plug. No fluid leaks out, so no fluid gets in! The threads are covered in oil, I see no benefit in trying to use penetrating oil on it. YMMV

no nut here, but I did have a spare 10mm Allen, so I welded that in and used a 10mm socket to remove.
I think the heat from welding did more then anything else. came out soo easy after the Allen was welded in and things were roasty toasty.


I still have that drain plug kicking around in case anyone in my area does the old chisel trick on a Sunday. I debated on keeping it like that, but went for the Lexus plug instead.

 

Yep, if you put some good heat to it before stripping everything it should come out easier. Welding on it gives it that "deep" heat though.

 

2005 4runner, but same deal. welded a nut on there and the heat really helped it to loosen up.

I did warp the flange on the plug with the heat since I welded on the outside of the nut. Was leaking very slowly, noticed the side of the diff was wet again after cleaning with brake clean. Ended up RTVing the crush was lol and its been mint since with no leaks

 

more info on this tool please