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Melanie, who is rapidly becoming everyone's favorite person for her tenacious effort to save a derelict SAAB, writes:
> By the way, when I do want to drain the gear box oil (better sooner then later), how the heaven to I get this blessed drain plug out, assuming that it is not keyed to a 3/8th drive, but looks like the two half moons with the wall in between, ie. ( | ).
Yes, as KSKid theorized, you have encountered the $#@*& special transaxle drain plug that can't be removed without a special gizmo. (KS' theory that it's to prevent yutzy attendants at GooberLube from thinking it's the engine-oil drain plug and sending you on your merry way with a dry transaxle is one I had heard also and sounds highly plausible. But then how come I also once encountered the same type of infuriating plug on the purely conventional gearbox of a 1.6-liter Capri? I think it's some evil FooMooCo plot against sanity...)
So, how DO you get it out? The way I conquered the Capri plug was with the home mechanic's three most important tools: Vise-Grips, swearing, and pain. Two drawbacks to this approach: it took almost an hour, and it left the drain plug a doggered-up mess.
So what do you do? You make yourself a tool. Two ways to go about it, both of which involve a grinder and thus lots of fun sparks and noise:
-- 1) Buy a cheap socket of about the right diameter and grind a V-shaped notch -- angled to match the central wall of the Unremovable Drain Plug from Hell -- into the end that would fit onto the nut. Now you press this socket against the drain plug so that the V grips the central wall, and crank away. Advantage of this tool is that you can use your regular ratchet handle to turn it.
-- 2) My local sports car shop guy made his own tool from scratch. He took a solid rod about 1/2" in diameter (just big enough to fit inside the drain plug's recess), ground the necessary V-shaped notch into one end, and drilled a crossways hole through the other end so he could run a thinner rod through it and make a T-handle. Advantage of this tool compared to the other is that the T-handle lets you press really hard with both hands to make the tool bear against the plug, which sometimes is necessary to remove a stubborn plug.
Or if you really enjoy the shriek of a grinder and the smell of aluminum oxide, make both tools and you're prepared for any transaxle plug.
Incidentally, one suggestion I read in a Brit-car mag's profile of the 96, which made a lot of sense to me: If YOU didn't already have this special tool, how likely do you think it is that the yoofs at GooberLube had it? And how likely do you think it is that they went to the bother of making one? Not likely, right? So (as the Brit-mag's marque specialist noted) if your transaxle still has that accursed original plug, it's possible that the transaxle lube has NEVER been changed, or at least not since the car went off warranty back during the Nixon administration. So, be prepared for some, um, exciting surprises when you do remove the plug and see what (if anything) comes out.
So, here's a question for all: I've got one transaxle that has the Accursed V-Shaped Satan-Spawned Drain Plug, and another that has a nice normal magnetic plug with a square recess into which I can simply stick a 3/8" drive socket when I want to remove it.
NOW, where can I get another plug like that, so I can replace the evil one? I know I can get regular pipe plugs at a hardware store, but these don't have magnets in them; who's got a source for the official magnetized, square-socketed plug? I'll bet Melanie would like to have one of these, too, and perhaps others as well...
posted by 68.13.18...
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