Date:         Sun, 3 May 2015 18:09:45 -0700
Reply-To:     Stuart MacMillan <stuartmacm@GMAIL.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Stuart MacMillan <stuartmacm@GMAIL.COM>
Subject:      Oil drain plug problems-Help!
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

It’s just not my weekend for getting anything done.  Went to do the first
oil change on my son’s ’87 and found it has an 8mm hex key (Allen wrench)
plug that now has a round hole instead of a six sided hole.  Is this
somebody’s idea of a bad joke?  I do not see this type of plug for sale on
any of our vendor’s sites. 

 

Which brings me to another point, my 1.9’s plug is the conventional bolt,
but it says “14 1.25” on the top. It’s been rounded off and filed to fit a
13mm socket, but the replacement plug I ordered from Van Café is not the
same thread pitch, it’s coarser. Hmm. 

 

My options  for the ’87 as I see them are:

 

1.       Buy a big enough screw extractor to back it out, which may require
drilling the hole all the way through and draining the oil over my drill

2.       Take it somewhere and have them deal with it

3.       Sell the van for $25,000 and look for another one 

 

My 1.9’s have all had a normal plug with a hex bolt head, as did the 2.1 I
put into my ’84 years ago.

 

This can’t be the correct plug, can it??

 

Stuart