Diff drain bolt tight
Diff drain bolt tight
Author
Discussion

steve j

Original Poster:

3,223 posts

257 months

Thursday 30th June 2016
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Tried to do a diff oil change, the filler plug came out easy enough, the drain bolt is not moving and it was in a poor state when I tried frown. It looks as though the diff will have to come out just to get the drain bolt out. Has anyone got any ideas as to how I can shift the drain before I start to remove the back end, thanks for any help.
steve j.

Steve_D

13,802 posts

287 months

Thursday 30th June 2016
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You could weld a nut over the head of the existing bolt. The added benefit of this is the head transfered along the bolt may help free it.
The alternative is to siphon the old oil out.

Steve

ChimpOnGas

9,637 posts

208 months

Thursday 30th June 2016
quotequote all
Steve_D said:
You could weld a nut over the head of the existing bolt. The added benefit of this is the head transfered along the bolt may help free it.
The alternative is to siphon the old oil out.

Steve
This is exactly what I did.... take an old wheel nut, turn up you're mig, and make sure you get plenty of penetration to your weld.

Immediately after the weld and while its still red hot, get a long breaker bar with a six sided impact socket on it and it'll should come free.

Normally when the drain plug won't come free like this it's because it's never been undone, the thread lock compound used by BTR at the factory is/was super effective (too effective). The plug's reluctance to undo could well be an indication your diff oil has never been properly changed.

Because of how hard it is to remove the drain plug the first time I strongly suspect many so called TVR specialists just do a top up, or at best suck out some of the old oil via the filler plug and replace with new, this method is obviously nowhere near as good as a proper drain & fill.

Good luck with it, that drain plug can be a real pain to undo, and the welded on nut method is definitely your best bet for success thumbup





jojackson4

3,049 posts

166 months

Thursday 30th June 2016
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Did the COG trick 4 years ago A1
The plus side is you get a nut of a good size and not the poxiy 12-13 mm they put in

dogbucket

1,254 posts

230 months

Saturday 2nd July 2016
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Must be a common problem as mine was also stuck and rounded off. The now defunct Austec wielded a nut on and I supplied a new plug to replace it.