94 Manual Transmission Plugs - Allen ??

[andrewc4]

I thought I was going to put Red Line MTL in today, and when I got the car up on the ramps, and looked at the drain and fill plugs in the six speed, I found that the plugs might require large Allen sockets.

Do they require Allen sockets, does anyone know what size?

 

[G Winter]

The plugs are metric. If I remember right it is a 15 but I may be wrong on that. It could be 16 or 17 .



PS mine were very very tight. I ended up using a pipe wrench and a breaker bar. I was lucky they were sticking out enough to get the pipe wrench on. Without the help of the breaker bar the allen wanted to slip out. I hope yours aren't that tight.

 

[andrewc4]

So I guess it would be best to get a set of Craftsman metric allen 'sockets', doesn't sound like fun if they're in too tight.

 

[G Winter]

I think somewhere somone drained mine and turned them in to tight. They didn't put anything on the threads either.

 

[Vettefreak100]

If it is a ZF six speed it's a 17 mm hex. I bought a hex key from Craftsman and put a pipe on them to break them loose because they are tight. Little note that I was not aware of until I had tranny trouble and that's the zf six speed should have the oil changed every 20,000 miles. It's basically engine oil and will need to be changed unless someone comes up with a copper magnet.

 

[CAJUN C4]

Use the GM oil or Castrol RS 10w60 only w/o any additives.

 

[andrewc4]

17mm, exactly what I was looking for. Thanks, I'll drop by Sears during lunch.

I've already picked up the Red Line MTL, so I'll get it a try for the next 20,000 miles. After reading the forum, I see the Castrol and Red Line both have fans. One question, what's the best way of getting the new fluid into the fill plug, not too much room up there to hold the bottle up and let gravity do the job.

 

[LT4man]

Most auto stores (Auto Zone, Murrays, NAPA, Car Quest) have a plastic pump that screws onto the top of an oil container. Fill it up, pump it in, and wait for the oil to start coming out of the fill hole. Put some teflon tape or paste on the threads, tighten the fill plug and you will be good to go!

 

[andrewc4]

Interesting thing, Hazet makes a 17MM socket, for a half inch wrench. The 1/2 implies that the tough time people had loosening the plug was not that unusual. I find the 1/2 wrench a little unusual for the recommended torque setting.

 

[LT4man]

Not that unusual at all. In the old days (1965-80!) a lot of domestic manual transmissions had a square plug you could fit a 1/2" rachet into. They also had these on differentials. A good mechanic (technician) would ALWAYS have a good 1/2" drive rachet among his tools.

Voila! Finding the right socket was never a problem!

Save The Wave!

 

[Grizzly]

Not that unusual at all. In the old days (1965-80!) a lot of domestic manual transmissions had a square plug you could fit a 1/2" rachet into. They also had these on differentials. A good mechanic (technician) would ALWAYS have a good 1/2" drive rachet among his tools.

Voila! Finding the right socket was never a problem!

Save The Wave!

That's when they still did things that make sense.......................:eyerole

 

[andrewc4]

Actually in the Haynes book they picture shows a square hole, I was wondering what size it was, now it makes a little more sense.

 

[CAJUN C4]

It definatly is a 17 mm Allen head. Tried to get mine out last week and couldn't budge it.You reaaly need to get the car up in the air to get adequate leverage.