Front Differential - Stripped Drain Plug

Rear diff, trans and transfer case all went well. However, the Drain plug on front diff wouldn't budge - ended up stripping it out using a breaker bar.

Fill plug was tight as crap but did break it loose

What are my options?

Looks like I can take it somewhere and have a nut welded to it

also, thought about trying to heat it and maybe try with vise grips or cutting a notch in it enough to try and turn with a chisel.

how much heat can I apply to the plug with a MAP Torch?

any other thoughts or tricks?

 

My front diff drain plug rounded off too with the hex socket. Even tried it with M18 impact. Don't think it was ever serviced. I gave up for now. Some folks say soak it, use heat, cold chisel, or weld a socket on as a last resort. I'll get back to attempting it in the spring. I did pump about 3/4 of a qt out from the fill plug and topped it back off.

 

What I would probably do....Vise grip as tight as you can. Then remove it and heat the bejezus out of it. Tap on the bolt a couple times with a mini sledge, then clamp the vice grip back on and beat on the vice grip in an attempt to rotate it.


That being said, buy a replacement, go to a muffler shop and have them weld on a nut or bolt, then use an impact on it. if you can get one there.


I've welded cheap impact sockets onto drain plugs before

 

I almost stripped my fill plug. I guess fortunately the hex head was not fully seated. I will probably replace next change. You could try drilling a hole and using an easy out.

 

Muffler shop>tack weld a nut>let cool>break plug loose in the air>snug it back up>let'er down>drive'er home.

 

My best advice would be to order a new one along with picking up one of thease https://m.sears.com/craftsman-10mm-...BtnF5ny-I8GXkAGEOgUXrc5pjqj6eUuYaAt6KEALw_wcB
Then get a socket almost the size of the oil plug and give it a few good raps to break the corrosion between the plug and housing. Then if needed give it a notch and work it loose.
On the install of new one put a small coat of silicone on outer surface of plug that bottoms on housing to prevent additional corrosion.

 

thanks for advise - will let everyone know how it runs out.

ZPman- for some reason i cant get that sears link to work What is it showing?

 

Try this one.
https://www.homedepot.com/p/GearWre...8PVBje1hgBngJNqtmfmOcp8L7fStI6_saAgK9EALw_wcB

And you might try getting a 11mm one also, it might possibly fit in if rounded out.

 

Damn that’s thing is in tight. No reason it should have been torqued that much.

I have done about all I feel comfortable with. I heated it up a lot, hit with hammer. Tried vise grips and chisel. Can’t get it to budge. Think I’ll do as suggested and get a shop to weld a nut to it

 

Silicone is recommended to be applied to the threads on the plugs on my oil bath hubs on boat trailer for that reason.

 

I use a chisel when it wont budge. Stake it straight on good to get a nice indent, then on an angle. Works every time.
I see this happen a lot

 

Yep, mine’s stuck too. I used my vacuum brake bleeder to suck out most of the fluid. & then did a refill. I ordered replacement plugs so I could use more coercion the next time.

 

Living in Minnesota makes me put silicone on everything I want to take apart at a later date.

 

Mine has no visible corrosion. Underneath my entire truck is clean.

Might try the chisel again

Just put in way too tight from factory

 

Has anyone found a good replacement plug?

seeing some different part numbers.

is this correct stock # 90341-24014

 

As I remember it was a plug with a o-ring. Picture if it helps any.

 

ThNks!!
Just ordered a new one. Going to try again with chisel.

 

First strike the drain plug with a ball peen hammer, a good firm strike, not hard though.

Get a very sharp and very hard punch and tap the outer perimeter of the plug. Eventually you will form a pocket with the punch tip and you can hit it harder. I used a little bit of heat from a propane torch, then hit it with "canned air"... I tipped the can upside down to shock it thermally. It came loose eventually.

 

OP, can you get a pipe wrench on it? If so would think much more effective than vise grips.

 

New plug arrived today and Got the old one out.
The chisel worked. Heated it up with map torch. It Took a little while but finally got the plug to finally break loose. Good feeling to finally see it turn !

front diff fluid was a a little dirty but really not that bad. Got new fluid in and new plug installed

thanks for all the help - glad it worked

 

4 mos later and I finally got my diff plug out. Grabbed an air chisel and got it to turn. I'm pretty sure mine has never been removed (08).

 

I know that was a good feeling to see it finally move.

 

Zebruaj

How did you use the air chisel to remove the plug? Did you keep hitting it at an angle / at the same point in an attempt to spin it?

Thanks all for the potential directions. Both front and rear diff stripped on me (08 Sequoia).

Are there alternative plugs with a socket or such, rather than an internal hex fitting? Seems like a poor design. The 24mm transfer bolt nits are much easier.

 

When you get to putting the new drain bolts back in be sure and not over torque them. Know the factory spec (I don't as I type) and make sure that as you torque it down you're not telling yourself "daaaaaaang that is tiiiiiiiiiight." If you do tell yourself that then maybe stop just a bit short of spec'd torque. I like using a factory torque spec. But I really like using my head and judgement as well.

 

Yes sir I found specs for the bolts as follows, someone can correct please:

Torque drain/fill 27 ft-lbf
Diffs drain/fill 29 ft-lbf

Which if correct is why it’s crazy how hard it is to get the diff bolts off.

 

Start slightly straight but angled so the chisel creates a valley to sit in (so the chisel doesn't jump around on you). Then angle it more and more as that valley forms so the chisel pushes more than it digs. It only took me a couple ugga duggas after the valley formed to turn the plug.

Hope that makes sense.

I heard the 24mm head plugs are the same pitch and fit. I haven't tried myself.

 

Thanks!

 

I wonder if one of the lexus plugs would fit our front diffs. Has anyone here tried to find a set that works? I assume the OEM bottom one has a magnet so there's probably two different part numbers to find.

 

This is what I could find doing some couch surfing.

Both Tundra and LX570 use the same gaskets on the front diff: the drain plug uses gasket 90430-24003 (the flat copper one) which also cross-references to all Tacoma '95-present and Tundra '00-present; the fill plug gasket is 12157-10010 and applies to those years as well. Toyota parts shows the 12157-10010 gasket used on both our rear diff drain and fill plugs FWIW.

Lexus shows the LX570 comes with the exact same drain and fill plugs with the 10mm allen head as the Tundra so I guess that route is out.

Toyota parts website shows the same part numbers for Tundra and Tacoma front diff plugs (90341-18032 fill and 90341-24014 drain) so we know the threads are the same on both trucks. That one in the link might work as it's a Tacoma site.

Here's the one in the link with a cross-reference list (not from Toyota/Lexus tho). On the

Toyoya 90341-24016 PLUG, STRAIGHT SCREW

Amazon page it shows it having a magnet in the picture.

I picked one model (IS350) from the cross-reference list to find where it applies; it's the front diff drain plug, using the same 90430-24003 copper gasket as our Tundra drain plug does. Cool. The IS350 uses 90341-18060 fill plug with our 12157-10010 fill plug gasket (encouraging) but I don't know if the threads are the same. The only picture I could find was this ebay page and I take anything on e.bay with a grain of salt, but it does show the external hex for a wrench.

I found the fill plug on sparksparts but the 90341-24016 drain plug doesn't return any results there.

TacomaWorld shows people happy with just the drain plug here.

 

I’ve been changing fluids in a newly acquired 2013. Everything went ok until I got to the front differential drain nut, it’s not stripped yet. I may have to try the chisel method.