Front diff plug help

I use an impact screw driver.
Take a big hammer give it 3 good smacks. Then on the 4th smack, I send it home. It will either break free or strip clean out.

I don’t waste my time. If it strips using the impact it was going to anyways. If it does, weld a nut to it and carry on. If you can’t weld, go to an exhaust shop. It won’t be any problem for them. And I bet they don’t even charge you much.

BTW, it doesn’t have to be Snap-On.
The cheap ones work just as well.
Success rate for me has beed over 90%

 

Another tip is the next time you try to chisel a plug out try the outside of the flange not the inside. Don't feel bad lots of Toyota products suffer from this design flaw, You should hear all the land cruiser owners whine.

 

x2

 

I worked for Snap-On...

Most hand tools are made by manufacturers that make tools for all kinds of different brands. That means tools that are branded Craftsman, Thorson, Klein, etc, have tools made by different manufacturers and sometimes those manufacturers change over time. They also have tools made by decent manufacturers where a bad individual tool gets by an inspection process.

The only tools I've ever had with consistently terrible reliability issues is Ryobi. But then they are power tools and I'm not sure they are made by a common manufacturer.

 

I highly recommend the Lexus replacement plug. Changes it from an innie to an outie.

I just did my diff fluids last weekend and it was so easy using a socket. Came right off without a struggle.

 

I hear ya.

I have never had as bad of experience with any other tool brand than Craftsman. I think they let the "Lifetime Warranty" go to their heads.

I have Crapsman, Harbor Freight, Kobalt, Stanley, S-K, Snap-On, Tekton, and some other random Chinesium Amazon stuff.

Crapsman has by far been the worst quality of all of them.
Chrome peeling off the sockets.
Box wrench sloppy.
Screw drivers tips super soft or super brittle.
Extensions not holding sockets.
Rachets breaking their internals, and we get a "rebuild kit".
On and on...

I completely lost it on a salesman at Sears when I brought in my 1/2" breaker bar that sheared the 1/2" cube clean off with my arm strength. Was just trying to remove a stuck lug nut. He said I used a cheater bar and put too much stress on it, therefore not covered by the warranty.

Although I didn't have access to or use a cheater tube where I was, I have used cheaters on other brand breaker bars since without issue. The Crapsman breaker bar was something I had recently purchased, yet hadn't used it until I was called over to help a buddy try and get his Chevy lugs broken loose. 1st nut.....the cube sheared right off.

Long story, longer.... I quit buying Crapsman.

 

Yeah the craftsmans have gotten crappier from decades ago.

When you perform the diff plug removal did you warm the truck up a bit? Take it out for a boot in 4X4? Or did you have problems removing plug cold?

cheers