Date:         Thu, 20 Jul 2000 22:03:15 -0400
Reply-To:     Jim Cain <jcain@mindspring.com>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Jim Cain <jcain@mindspring.com>
Subject:      Re: speaking of tools (was "Huge Nut on Rear Drum")
Comments: To: sharks <jayshark@aracnet.com>
In-Reply-To:  <Pine.LNX.4.21.0007201456150.14581-100000@shell1.aracnet.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" ; format="flowed"

>...Well, I was ready for action except for the fact that I don't know what
>kind of tool I need to remove the plug.  It certainly isn't in my socket
>set.  Is that a hex nut?

Good story here about these plugs.  In Summer 1972 I was driving my
1971 Westy up a mountain in Eastern Turkey and had a rough crossing
of a drainage ditch.  Bottomed out and put a hairline crack in the
gearbox.  Enough so that the fluid was seeping out after an hour or
so, very slowly.  Went into the nearest town where they had never
seen a Westy before, but the Turks are great mechanics.  No one had
the tool, so the guy welded a piece of iron rod to a hex head bolt
and made a tool.  It worked and I used it for several more years
until I got out of the VW business for a while in 1978.  I just kept
stopping every now and then and topped it up until I got to a bigger
city where the mechanic used epoxy glue to plug the crack. Never
leaked a drop after that.

Jim in Atlanta w/ 85 Westy, George