Changed my oil yesterday and decided to do the 2 quart drain refill for my transmission. Well with my luck the drain plug ended stripping out. I realize that putting a new trans pan is the correct way to fix my booboo but because I was pressed for time I ended up drilling/tapping the hole and putting in a new drain plug from autozone. I ended up using a standard SAE drain plug bolt to go with my SAE tap. Now I paid carefull attention in making sure I got all the shavings and it appears that the bolt should do just fine as the pan had generous thickness at the hole for me to tap.

My concern is the new drain plug is 3/4 inch longer than the factory drain plug. In other words it goes 3/4 more into the pan when tightened. Since I didnt drop the pan I don't know if that little more length will obstruct anything or impede on fluid flow. Am I worrying over nothing? Anyone have bad experience with tapping a metal pan like the trans pan? God I would hate to ruin a tranny.

 

It's not blocking anything so 3/4" longer is fine.

 

How do you torque the drain plug for the transmission why out a torque wrench? When do you stop turning?

 

Use a hand wrench, not a ratchet. It's hard to over torque a drain plug with a wrench.

 

I guess when I was tightning the bolt halfway thru I felt it bind up a little, didn't think anything of it untill the bolt butted up against the pan and kept spinning. It would'nt back out so I ended up punching a flat headed punch behing the bolt head and used it as leverage while turning the bolt backwards to back the bolt out.

 

True. Using ratchet give you better angle. Anyone uses a ratchet to tighten the drain plug? How much of a turn to give it a 19 ft-lbs?

 

a 3/8" rachet is about a foot long, so just apply enough force to move 19 lbs of weight as you hold it at the end.