Front diff drain plug stuck

I'll give a little more details on what I've done so far:

* PB blasted daily for a week

* Stripped out the hex socket

* Hammered in a star tip, broke it with an impact wrench

* Chiseled out a groove for a flathead, stripped that

* Applied constant heat with a torch for 10 minutes, chiseled at the sides from an angle for another 10 minutes. Lots of dents, but no movement.

At this point i'm gonna find a shop to weld it. Hopefully one of them will be willing to do so. Most in my area don't seem to like doing custom stuff for liability purposes, which makes sense I guess but is lame. For those of you suggesting the Lexus plugs, that's certainly an option. I already splurged and have this one ready to go: https://www.kaon.com.au/front-diff-drain-plug-to-suit-toyota

With the matching fill plug already installed: https://www.kaon.com.au/front-diff-fill-plug-to-suit-toyota

 

Take it you're pretty far then huh

 

From the central valley? Depends on where exactly you are and your definition of far, I guess. I'm in the Monterey area.

 

My plan is to thoroughly clean the recess of the allen head.

PB Blast it for a couple of days prior.

Use your hammer trick.

I have hex impact sockets... put a 10mm on my breaker bar and go at it. Hopefully that works. If not...

...bust out the impact wrench. If that doesn't work, try a 5/32 extractor. If that doesn't work...

...bring it to a shop to weld a nut on it.

Then replace it with the Lexus plugs I bought based on your post

 

3hrs away; I used to live where you're at

Although sometimes 2.5hrs depending on traffic

 

I'm guessing you're either in the Fresno or Sacramento area then?

 

Cut a notch on the edge of the plug and then a chisel and large hammer will break it loose

 

Just 15mins south east of Fresno yep

Be easier for you to get it done locally if you can of course, but for the reason you suggested earlier (liability) is the main reason why I got into welding and fab work in the first place

No one wants to do shit up there in the central coast

 

Well shoot, road trip that pig down to Fresno.

 

Which always seems so weird to me considering the car culture here in Monterey (Concours, Laguna Seca, Hollister Hills, all right here). My guess is that my best luck will be in Salinas.

And yeah, I'd LOVE to take a welding class, but there aren't any that I've found that I can fit into my work schedule.

 

No kidding, buddy was just down here from Hanford earlier today for some fabricobbling

 

Welding class would be a waste of time and money

 

Hard to believe you can’t find a shop to weld a nut…..this is crazy

 

Don’t try a regular mechanic, go to an exhaust shop, they usually advertise welding services too and don’t have as many liability issues.

 

In addition to these excellent thoughts, I placed some aluminum foil over the drain plug and then hammered the allen wrench socket into the drain plug. I’m not sure if doing that actually helped, but it did make for a closer tolerance fit between the allen wrench socket and the plug.

 

that! is a definite splurge

were you using a 1/2 inch 10mm hex or the 3/8 hex

this worked well with a 18" 1/2" breaker on the drain and a busted forearm with little clearance to the ground
clean all the sand dirt greasy grit out with a pick
unfortunately! this 1/2" 10mm hex is way too long to fit up there into the fill plug, no clearance from that crossmember...

those places probably now seem to want 150$ (or more!) to even entertain looking at it is crazy
welding services is additional

 

I was using a 1/2" 10 mm hex bit with a breaker bar. That stripped the shit out of it. After, I hammered in a 1/4" 12mm star bit (didn't have any 1/2" bits) and used an adapter to use it with my impact gun. That ended up just shearing the adapter inside the star bit. I wouldn't recommend doing that.

 

was it pre-stripped already before you had the first go at it?

my forearm still has not recovered after six+ months since i cracked the front diff drain plug on my mother's '11 Taco for the first time since it left the factory 12.5 years and 79k miles... it was tight AF and i had no leg leverage on the breaker, just used one arm on the shoulder holding that bit firm against the plug so it would not slip and strip
saved her a +150$ front diff service at the monkey shop but now cannot readily palm a 12-pack in that arm
the dumb thing about the Gen2 is the Check plug requires removal of the driver wheel to get at properly, not like our Gen1s that is right there in the front!

 

It wasn't pretty, but also not a complete lost cause. The fill plug was in similar shape, but I was fortunately able to get that one out with some PB blaster and a 20" breaker bar. I'm glad I had the replacement ready to go, though, because there's no way it would have survived another round.

 

Option C, its inferior to welding. Before I bought a welder, I had good luck with fast setting JB weld and a sacrificial torx you hammer in there.

JB weld the torx, shove the gooey mess in the allen socket, hit with hammer, wait a few hours and remove.