Stripped Axle Drain Plug

[Sputnik40]

Anyone have a fix for a stripped out axle (diff) drain plug?

Have a spare axle housing that I've been holding onto for a few years to do a 4-link with, had someone blast the outside last year and coat it in Ospho - just getting around to prepping it to weld on the truss and get it epoxy primered so it won't rust (South Florida near the ocean) and notice that the drain plug is stripped out?

 

[Brian in Oregon]

Get an oversized, self tapping drain plug, or drill and tap it for the next size up drain plug, or have a new bung welded in.

 

[Henry James the 47th]

I had the same problem. BTW - I presume you mean that the head of the drain plug is too rounded to get traction with a socket or the ring end of a spanner?

If so, there are two solutions you might want to try:

1) try this first - get a cold chisel and a 5 pound hammer and try and drive the corner of the chisel in to the the side of the drain plug head, directing the hits so as to get the plug turning (counterclockwise). This worked fine in my case - the shock from the chisel blows helps a lot, and mine came out no problem.

2) more desperate - weld something, like a lever arm, onto the remains of the top of the plug and use that to turn it

Last resort is to drill it out and re-tap, IMO. I bet the cold chisel will do the trick.

good luck!

 

[LC_Hamma]

have a new bung welded in.

^^This^^
I can just imagine how much a metric tap that large is gonna run $$ to clean up the threads. I'd weld in a 3/4 X 16 heim joint nut. Dunno if you can find a bolt w/ an impregnated magnet like the stock one has. Good luck there

 

[Sputnik40]

have a new bung welded in.

^^This^^
I can just imagine how much a metric tap that large is gonna run $$ to clean up the threads. I'd weld in a 3/4 X 16 heim joint nut. Dunno if you can find a bolt w/ an impregnated magnet like the stock one has. Good luck there

I think I'm a bit too lazy to cut out and weld in a bung. Seems like a royal PITA. My thoughts exactly on picking up a chase - upon closer inspection, the threads are only bad on one quarter side - and don't go all the way up. If I could chase it I'd be good to go with a bit of sticky permatex on the threads.

Epoxy primed the housing, diff cover and truss yesterday. Going to go ahead and clean up the weld surfaces, weld it up, and am sure I can chase down a chase to fix the drain.

 

[Sputnik40]

I had the same problem. BTW - I presume you mean that the head of the drain plug is too rounded to get traction with a socket or the ring end of a spanner?

If so, there are two solutions you might want to try:

1) try this first - get a cold chisel and a 5 pound hammer and try and drive the corner of the chisel in to the the side of the drain plug head, directing the hits so as to get the plug turning (counterclockwise). This worked fine in my case - the shock from the chisel blows helps a lot, and mine came out no problem.

2) more desperate - weld something, like a lever arm, onto the remains of the top of the plug and use that to turn it

Last resort is to drill it out and re-tap, IMO. I bet the cold chisel will do the trick.

good luck!

Thanks for reply - but it is actually the threads in the housing itself. Looks like some moron threaded in a drain plug wrong - didn't know that was possible with such a large thread size, geez. Then again - I stripped it off a pretty buggered parts truck I had a few years ago - should have expected it.

As to stripped heads - I gave up on the stock drain plugs and thought I was smart buying allen head magnet drain plugs, until I found out all that Limestone I wheel on gets wedged in the allen head like concrete

 

[Cruiserdrew]

That tap is available everywhere since it's a fairly common spark plug thread. Maybe 18 x 1.5? I can look when I get home since I have one. I would just run a tap over the threads first as that is much easier than the other options.

 

[paranoid56]

well if you wheel it at all, just shave it. those things just work loose on the trail anyways. just get a hole saw and cut it out and weld in a new plate. and dont say its to much work. if you aer planing on doing a 4link, thats way more work LOL lazy ass

 

[Sputnik40]

well if you wheel it at all, just shave it. those things just work loose on the trail anyways. just get a hole saw and cut it out and weld in a new plate. and dont say its to much work. if you aer planing on doing a 4link, thats way more work LOL lazy ass

True enough - ironically I do have a nice set of hole saw bits that'd work fine.....