Newbie to this forum Question

[jschaefer70]

I have a 1998 4-Runner which I recently purchased with 86K miles. I am in the process of changing all the fluids to get it up to schedule. In the process of changing the transmission fluid, I noticed the drain plug was a little difficult to come off. I took care in getting it off. When off, I inspected the threads on the bolt and housing. They looked good so I put the drain plug back in (with new seal). When attempting to torque (~150 in-lbs) down the bolt it slipped and I was not able to torque it down. The plug seems to hold. In a hurry I went ahead and refilled with ATF. It seems to be holding for now and I've had some minor seepage but nothing significant. I've heard that it's easy to cross thead or strip. Since I'm type A, I typically change my ATF every 10k miles, so having this corrected will allow me to sleep at night. What is the best way in correcting this problem? I ask because I really don't want to purchase a new tranny pan unless it's the only way to go.

Jeff S. :eek:

[Commutacoma]

Sounds like it was already stripped when you bought it. I don't own a torque wrench, so I just go by feel The first time I changed my tranny fluid was just shy of 100,000 miles - so you have lots of time to determine a solution. I am up to 200k now and the tranny seems fine.

[blown4runner]

LMAO.... they are all stripped out to some extent, usually happens after the first drain and refill because some dumba$$ over tightened the plug. The slipping while tightening kind of worries me, but I guess as long as its holding. Um fixing the threads is complicated... so much so it would probably be worth just ignoring it as long as it doesn't leak... Mine was fawkered up since the day I bought it with 139K miles on it, changed the fluid multiple times in the past 2.5 years, even flushed the system, plugs still doing it job at 190K!

[RedRunnertc]

Can't you just chase the threads with a tap?

[DriftinCO]

Yeah, I was thinking the same thing about re-tapping the threads at the same size. Might want to get a new plug bolt though.

[tacotoy]

Can't you just chase the threads with a tap?

a reverse tap would probably be better.... but they are more money lol. they tap from the inside out since usually the inner threads are still in decent shape, just insert in expand and back it out, this way no shavings end up in the tranny as well