A little help please. Tried to get the filler plug off of my front differential to do a fluid change this past weekend and couldn't even budge it before the head started to round. I used a 24MM socket which sure seemed to fit, and an extension to get in front of the IFS crossmember, etc. Tried the WD-40 but no luck so far. Am I stuck taking it somewhere with an impact wrench?

 

im not sure if its possible but you might wanna try putting some heat to it. the one thing i might be concerned with that though is heating up the gear oil but since youre gonna change it anyway i dont see any problems..........maybe someone else will chime in with any experience there.

 

ok guys i'm having the exact same problem. i even drained it first cause im stupid!!!! so, its increadible hard to take off the breather up in the front on 2nd gens. luckly i have manual locking hubs, so i can drive around. so i went and got some pb blaster and have been spraying the hell out of the filler bolt. it still wont come off!!!! any suggestions?

 

Impact it. If that doesn't work, weld a wrench to it and replace the bolt.....of course you could just SAS it and you wouldn't have to worry either!!

 

uh what do you mean impact it?

 

He's talking about an impact wrench. If you're not sure what he meant, you probably don't have one. The best way that I've found is to get a 24" long 1/2" drive breaker bar, and then slip another 12-18 inches of pipe over the end of the breaker. You get 40 inches of leverage, and with that, I've loosened the tightest of bolts with 1 hand. It's all about torque, man! Long lever = mucho torque :-)

You can do the poor man's impact wrench by still using the 24" breaker bar, and hitting it on the handle with a 2-3 pound sledge hammer. That is the same idea that an impact wrench. 4-5 hits usually loosens any bolt with a 24" breaker.

Good luck!

 

Oh yeah, forgot about the breakerbar. I usually use half of my jack handle - I put the end of the ratchet in the handle to make a home-made breaker bar...its a good way to break tools too!!

Only weld the wrench on if you strip the bolt....I think this is obvious, but just in case its not.

 

12 inch pipe wrench will do it

 

yeah well actually about an hour after i posted and probably a 1/4 of a can of pb blaster later, my brother in law got it off for me using his "big guns" with the regular ratchet. i was trying to think of somebody who had some air tools.

 

its funny you mention. i tried to get my rear diff bolt off today..and couldnt budge it either...i was also running out of ideas.

 

Ya, it took quite an effort to get mine off last summer, too. Took two of us - one to keep the ratchet/extension/socket pressed onto the head of the bolt so it wouldn't round off, and one to turn the ratchet and try to loosen the bolt.

I ended up taking a nice chunk of skin off my knuckles when it finally broke loose and I scraped my hands on the pavement.

 

yeah, those bolts are weird, because they're not like regular bolts that slowly get looser or tighter, once you break it loose, its extrememly loose. i kept thinking that the ratchet was coming off the bolt then realized it had just broken lose. i got a really nice bruise on the lower part of my thumb from the rear. hurt like hell.

 

i had one hell of a time with my f/r diffs on my 85 pickup. scraped my knuckle a few times. eventually my bronther-in-law said why dont you just use the jack handle for more leverage. sure enough the 2.5 foot handle did the trick, quite easily too. all that scraped knuckles for nothing.

 

I changed my transfer case lube today, and the filler plug was a real PIA to get off. The NWOR headers' crossover pipe was in the way a little, so I coudn't get the ratchet on there, so I used my grinder and put some grooves on the socket (for traction), then used vise grips on the socket, along with a BFH, and it came loose.

I also changed both plug gaskets, does anyone else always change these?

Note: When changing trans, transfer, or diff fluid, always remove the filler plug first, otherwise, you'll have no way to get new fluid back in if you drain it all.

 

i didn't change them. yeah i realized about taking the filler plug off first after i had already emptied it and taken it off.

 

i learned to take the filler plug off first the hardway. i drained my transmission oil first. oh well. at least i got the fill plug off but not until i stripped it.