hello, i went to change the oil in my manual transmission and the hole where you put in the 3/8 drive stripped out on the first turn like butter!so i get out the easy out and it breaks off in the hole and now i cant get a drill to go through as the easy out is a more tempered steel.any ideas???is this plug a right hand thread or what???

 

It's def. right-hand thread. It should be a regular external hex, though, not square drive. I wanna say 21mm or maybe 19.

Edit - checked, both drain and fill plugs are 22mm. Use a six-point socket.

 

these are on a manual where you just use the square part of the 3/8 drive socket to unscrew them.

 

Then someone's been in your porridge. The fact that it's a manual was noted from post #1; this means it's a ZF5. As said, the fill and drain plugs on a stock ZF5 are both 22mm. No doubt some metric thread (it is a German-designed tranny, after all). A plug with a 3/8 square drive is usually NPT thread. Someone must have been monkeying with your tranny to have changed it. Maybe some kind of insert. Your remedy might just be to remove that insert (presuming that's what was done).

 

Weld a nut to it

 

the fill plug is the same. are you saying it should have a hex bolt instead of a insert plug?








thats whats left of the bitch after i got her out!

 

I would probably convert to a hex plug. Been a while since I've been in there, but I recall my drain plug is like yours.

 

i could do that,but this has a little rubber washer(hard to see in photo) and the washer and lip of plug seat down in the hole.

 

See that wide flat area around the fill plug? The original plugs have a wide flange that covers that area. I didn't pull either plug to see if it had a flat gasket like an oil pan drain plug gasket to cover that space. In any event, that's evidence that those are not the original plugs. Dunno where you'd find 'em, though. Nothing at RockAuto. A general Internet search just comes up with a bunch of forum threads.

Update - I see part explosions / manual pics of both:
http://www.zf.com/media/media/docume...ce_manual_.pdf - page 28 - shows the wide flange hex plug. (Interesting, this PDF is on ZF's site, but it's a sloppy scan from a Ford manual.)
http://www.manualtransmissionpart.com/ZF-S5-42.html (click on the thumbnail of the diagram) - shows a square drive headless plug. This site at least has a part number (either 359483B or 359483A), but no price, so presumably not available.

 

well i guess it dont matter now i called Ford and the plug is obsolete...time for a hex with some kind of sealer ring.