Front Differential Drain Plug Head stripped (4 Viewers)

[alottolearn]

I'm posting this here just in case anyone needs ideas before taking it to a shop for extraction. I recently had to deal with this on my '02 Sequoia.

I fail to understand why Allen head plugs are used in the front diff case, the head is way too easy to strip if the plug is in there too tight. The fill plug came out easy enough, but when the drain plug starting giving me resistance, I immdiately soaked the area with PB blaster.

I destroyed a 3/8 ratchet when I put a snipe on it, and after that I tried a 1/4 impact driver. All that did was round out the 10mm head without budging the bolt. Anyhow, a buddy of mine lent me a snap on multispline extractor (I really need to pick up a set of these) and it worked like a charm. I will note that the drain plug was sitting with PB blaster on it for about 2 weeks before I got around to extracting it, so I'm assuming that helped.

I figured I should replace both the fill plug/crush washer and the drain plug/crush washer for the low low price of $50CDN (roughly $38USD) from the dealer. Ugh.

 

[LINUS]

Well, that’s kinda odd - the allen head is easier to work with compared to a rock-rashed bolt head like the 22mm (from memory) like came as the OE drain on 80 series.

But that Snap-On tool looks like a slick version of some Lyle(???) — (the ones that come in red vinyl pouches) -ones I have.

Those S-O ones look like they have some finer teeth to get more contact/bite with......have to keep those in mind.

 

[FirstGenTundra]

That tool is really neat. Glad it worked. I've seen several 1st gen Tundra owners have this same issue. Mine was a real pain to loosen but I finally got it.