Or if you don't know when it was last changed and you are that worried then renew the coolant. It can't hurt and then you know for sure.

very true. i'll look up the procedure and quantities etc... from the manual

fishsponge said:

very true. i'll look up the procedure and quantities etc... from the manual

Click to expand...

Then come on and ask more questions......

Big Stu 12 said:

Then come on and ask more questions......

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well... yes... i'm sure I will

Big Stu 12 said:

Then come on and ask more questions......

Click to expand...

It has gone past the funny stage now

it was never supposed to be funny... or annoying... honestly!

as i've said before, i'm just inexperienced, broke, paranoid about screwing things up and it's my only mode of transport!

I'm sure y'all understand... sort of... back when this was only 3 pages long...

fishsponge said:

it was never supposed to be funny... or annoying... honestly!

as i've said before, i'm just inexperienced, broke, paranoid about screwing things up and it's my only mode of transport!

I'm sure y'all understand... sort of... back when this was only 3 pages long...

Click to expand...

My disco is my only mode of transport and that is including my legs Yet I have the whole back cut off mine at the moment. £15 - £20 a time on taxis is getting stupid now. If only the weather would come good again

well, ok... i do have my legs, but I can't walk everywhere! I could take taxis, but a taxi to my workplace is around £30 each way, so it'd be £60 a day just to go to work!

Perhaps i'm exagerating slightly... i *do* have legs... but getting to places is much easier by car!

HELP!!

Everything's gone fine so far, and I set my torque wrench to 30Nm to put the transfer box drain plug back in (which came out easy enough) and before I even got anywhere near 30Nm (maybe 10Nm at most) it suddenly got very easy to turn and now it won't tighten or undo. It's just sitting there turning.

I therefore can't put any oil in the transfer box and i have no way of getting anywhere now (other than on foot!).

Suggestions welcome!

Beer tokens for anyone who fancies travelling to the Huntingdon area today to help out, of course.

This is the kinda thing I didn't want to happen, to be honest...

i've just spent the last 15 minutes with a pair of mole grips on the bolt to try and turn/pull it out, and it's not budging.

it'll turn easily enough, but I think it needs to be drilled out and I have no drill

...and I've now sharpened a screwdriver & woodchisel to try and give me some leverage, but still getting nowhere

Spent an hour & a half on this drain plug now...

Still not done it. Can I take the inspection plate off to apply pressure to the bolt from the inside or will I then need a new gasket for that as well?

fishsponge said:

Still not done it. Can I take the inspection plate off to apply pressure to the bolt from the inside or will I then need a new gasket for that as well?

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Did you have any **** or oil in the thread when you did it up? Either that or your torque wrench is ****ed giving false info

Sounds like you've stripped the thread. You need to drill through the plug and cut it out now then replace with a new one providing you haven't damaged the thread in the box. If that is the case, look up helicoil kits or start phoning around local engineers.

See, might have cost a few quid to bring it to me but it would have got sorted first time :doh:

Well yes... perhaps I should have brought it to you!

The bolt has sheared off now anyway & the rest is stuck in the hole.

The thread certainly had oil in it, but I wasn't even using the handle end of the torque wrench when it gave up. I was holding it & turning it at the socket end!

Anyway... I'm going to try & borrow a drill & see if it'll drill out or just sit there spinning in the hole.

fishsponge said:

Well yes... perhaps I should have brought it to you!

The bolt has sheared off now anyway & the rest is stuck in the hole.

The thread certainly had oil in it, but I wasn't even using the handle end of the torque wrench when it gave up. I was holding it & turning it at the socket end!

Anyway... I'm going to try & borrow a drill & see if it'll drill out or just sit there spinning in the hole.

Click to expand...

And to make matters worse, it's a bank holiday

Are you sure you wound it in properly? I reckon you've cross threaded it and stripped the thread. You should be able to get it out but if the box thread is damaged you'll need to re-thread it :doh:

I wound it in all the way by hand and only put the torque wrench on it when it was all the way in. It went in nice and easy. Came out nice and easy when I started too though once i'd cracked the seal.

I suspect it was buggered from the beginning and had been wedged/glued/stuck in somehow for one last time without the previous maintainer fixing it at the time thinking "oh, that'll do - i'm selling it soon anyway".

Anyway... it's all fixed now (temporarily). "50 pence", who lives quite near me, came over to lend a hand, so thanks a lot Del!

Before Del turned up though, I thought I had sheared off the bolt and left most of it inside the hole, but when we tried to drill it the drill bit didn't even make a mark. Upon closer inspection of the sheared bolt we realised it hadn't sheared at all... it had come out completely and just left the magnet wedged in the hole.

The only option was to hit the magnet through to the inside of the transfer box, take the inspection cover off and obtain the magnet.

Needless to say, the magnet had gone right in the corner behind the largest cog, but we eventually managed to grab it.

All we then did was retap the hole to M12 right the way through (only the bottom of the hole was threaded originally), stick a piece of M12 threaded bar in there, keeping it away from the main cog, of course, and then put a nut & washer on the end of it to keep it tight.

I then put the inspection cover back on after cleaning the faces and filled it up with oil!

A few pics so you all know it did happen!!

The nut that we thought had sheared off, but had simply left its magnet inside the hole.






You can see something stuck up there in this one... including lots of bits of metal!






All done (at last)! The transfer box oil renewal took over 3 hours though!


So... in summary...

- EP90 stinks. It really does smell awful.

- The £10 Draper oil suction pump I bought is useless. It managed to put almost as much oil on the ground and myself as it did into the transfer box, and the seal inside it is so bad it takes 4 or 5 goes to fill it up properly because it lets so much air in. This also means, of course, that it lets a lot of oil out when pushing it into the transfer box, which then goes all over yourself and the floor.

- Although the transfer box is kinda fixed (as long as it doesn't seep oil over the next few days) it'll need heli-coiling properly by a garage at some point soon, which will mean draining and refilling the transfer box oil again! The garage can do it this time though.

Oh, and I'm only half way through the service now... I did the engine oil, oil filter, fuel filter and transfer box oil, but I still have the diffs and the auto gearbox fluid to do and the rest of the greasing and other service items.

I'm glad you got it sorted and it was great that someone was able to come over and help you.

It was essential really... I have no drill, no M12 bolts or bar and never actually used a tap & die set, especially in a one-shot deal like my transfer box!

Anyway, I'm happy too. Just the rest of the service to do now! ...not today though... have plans.

Pleased to hear it's sorted.

Sounds like it was just bad luck that one, if it felt good going in by hand then you probably weren't to know.

Not the end of the world considering there is an inspection cover!!

gotta agree with you there fish regarding the draper syringe. mine leaks all over the place when you start applying pressure to the pump.
waste of £10.