Nortrac 204-C draining front Axel ?

[Frankm]

there are 3 veary small plugs it looks like to drain the Axel , should i heet them to get them out , there wanting to round off , and wont move , why in the world did they make them so small , i dont want to brake them off , and what size are there , what should i use to get them out ,Thanks Frank From Near Erie Pa .

 

[Diamondpilot]

You got the right plugs. I had to spay mine for 24 hours with penetrating oil then tap them with a hammer. I used a small crescent wrench so I did not put too much torque on them. If rounding try using a pair of vise grips super tight then clean up the heads once out with a file.


Chris

 

[3RRL]

Another thing to try if the heads are well rounded off and un-wrenchable (is that a word?)
You can weld a dowel pin or something to the head and use a wrench or pliers to grip on that. The heat from the weld should also loosen the plug.

 

[Red55]

If I am remembering correctly I found that an (1/4")extension for a rachet worked best used the female end over the nut and put crescent wrench on end of socket extension. Of course I figured that out after rounding one off -Ed

 

[Diamondpilot]

Great tip RED. I have also thought of fitting a nut on the square portion then welding it on so I can use a socket for future re-movement.

Chris

 

[3RRL]

Yeah, that's a great tip Red!
I never thought of doing that. Luckily my plugs are still square so I'll use your tip nest time.

 

[Rich Waugh]

Why not just use 8-point sockets, which are made for square plugs? Or are the Chinese ones an oddball size? I haven't yet pulled mine out so I don't know.

So much to learn, so little time left to learn it!

Rich

 

[Red55]

Rich -basically came down to using what I had available at the time. I did have sockets that fit but they slipped And your right about oddball size the 1/4 socket extension ended up being the tightest. I have metric wrenches but none of them fit -Ed

 

[psj12]

I actually have a set of four differend size square drive sockets specifically made for square drive pipe plugs. I think Snap On still carries them.

 

[Rich Waugh]

I have a small handful of square pipe plug sockets, all 8-point configuration. My experience so far is that my old American 8-point osckets seem to fit all the square plugs I've encountered on otherwise metric vehicles, bu tI have no idea if this means anything or not. The metric vehicles were all cars or trucks sold in the US and not true "foreign" vehicles.