94415atocrosswanabe

I've been meaning to check the transmission fluid level since i bought the car but i couldnt find a 17 mm allen wrench. i finally got the allen wrench, but i cant get the bolt to budge. Any suggestions on how to make it move or get it out? thanks matt.

User 462021

Maybe you could drive it around a bit to heat it up and then try again. Maybe some PB Blaster too.

tazman

What kind of allen wrench did you get? They make ones that fit on a socket so you could use a breaker bar on it. If you bought a regular L shaped wrench then you could try to find a pipe to slip over it to get the leverage you need. Don't forget plenty of penetrating oil to help loosen it up.

scular

Theres always the really safe way to loosen a it. Jack the car up. Place wrench on nut and the handle againt the ground. Lower the car.

Paul C 944

Try tapping(firmly) with a hammer,shocking it loose after pb blaster should work! <img src="graemlins/beerchug.gif" border="0" alt="[cheers]" />

94415atocrosswanabe

i ve tried all except getting it warm first, and lowering the car on the wrench, i dont want to strip the bolt, thanks ill just keep trying.

bs

you can put a lot of torque into a 17mm allen head before anything strips. just make sure you clean all the crud out so that you get maximum engagement.

i couldn't get mine off so my mech put a allen socket on his impact wrench. took about 1 second to come loose. someday i will have air tools.

Bob S. 1984 Silver

Ask me how I know....

Those plugs are quite thin walled and too much torque can bust out the sides. Taks a pair of curved jaw Vise Grips and clamp these to the outside of the plug. Then you can safely use even an inpact wrench. When reinstalling, use Never Seez. Ain't steel screwed into aluminum wonderful?

Bob S. (been there, done that, had to drill one out because the P.O. broke the wall of the plug)

83na944

I managed to remove mine last year.

I put short arm of the 17 mm "L" shaped Allen wrench (I'm too cheap to by the $25 allen socket) in the plug and the other end in a standard 17mm socket. I placed the socket on the end of a 18 inch breaker bar so that the socket was logitudinally aligned with the axis of the bar and the pivot of the bar pointed in direction of rotation.

I was able to break the plug free without much force and with no damage.

Hans

Had the same problem on mine. Solved it in less than 30 min as follows:
- Jack up the car & put on a jack stand.
- Remove left wheel.
- Use 1/2" socket type alan key and pile up all extentions you can find to bring the end outside the fender (I used two long ones and 2 short ones)
- Use impact screw driver (the manual one) and a real big hammer(1 kg or about 2 pounds).
The extention will just pass over the rotor in a straight line.
I needed about 5 decent strokes, then could turn the plug with the ratchet.
You wll mot see (or feel) the plug moving while using the impact wrench, so try with the ratchet after some blows.

CAUTION:
Mine had two differently sized plugs.
One was 17 mm, the other was 17.5
Just make sure you have the perfect fit alan key.
The wrong (under sized) one will wreck the internal hex from the plug as described by Bob above.
TakeCare

Wachuko

17.5 son of a b#$%#$%... that thing was simply frozen in place... now mine is damage, unable to take it out... since the tranny is out I use the drain hole to fill it back.

I tried all... even a chisel and a hammer...

17.5 !!

oi-punx

That plug is a pain. As was suggested before try a length of pipe fitted over the L shaped wrench. It worked great for me. The real pain comes when trying to fill the tranny up without a pump. What a mess.

94415atocrosswanabe

tried just about anything possible with my tools and it still wont come out! I even put a jack under the end of the wrench and jacked it up, but stopped when the car had risen 6 inches and the bolt still haddent moved. If i were to take the car to a mechanic to get the gear oil changed what the hell would he do to it.

tazman

He would either use a long breaker bar or an air impact wrench probably.

Brian Wilson

I tried the old fashioned way with no luck.

When I went with the impact wrench... no problem. It came right out. I've noticed that with a lot of things. If you can't get something out or off manually, and you have the right size socket or whatever, an impact wrench will probably break just about anything loose.

BTW - there is a such thing as a cheap air gun. I used my mechanics and noticed quite a bit less slop in it.