Morris Minor Owners Club

Hi all, I'm Mungo a 1956 splitscreen and my owners having trouble getting the plug out of the gearbox for filling / checking oil level, so could any of you kind hearted moggy men tell me what size soocket / spanner he should be using, and is there any quick way of freeing a tight plug apart from soaking in freeing oil. cheers Mungo

Hi Mungo

Tell your owner he should be using a 3/8Whitworth (7/16BSF) socket -with the correct size socket it should come undone quite easily.

Rog

Should come undone quite easily... I think somebody had used an impact driver on Fenchurch's - it was virtually welded in.

Alex, I've that on all three cars we've had. I don't know if they 'go' like that or theres a lot of people out there with air tools.

It could be something to do with it being a tapered steel plug in an aluminium casting, though whoever did it had also put Hypoid in there instead of 20W50.

One of ours had that! Why do people think its a good idea? Its not as if there was anything wrong with it, it wasn't masking problems!

Alex, your post has just made me realize something, I've almost finshed rebuilding a gearbox and have been using hypoid to assemble it. It's not as if I've ever used anything but engine oil in a minor before! Don't know what I was thinking! Hope it will dilute!

I can get the plug out fine, but getting it back in is a different story. I just can't get the bloody thing back in straight. I tried jamming it in the end of the socket with a bit of cardboard but it doesn't help.

JimK wrote:I can get the plug out fine, but getting it back in is a different story. I just can't get the bloody thing back in straight. I tried jamming it in the end of the socket with a bit of cardboard but it doesn't help.

It's possible somebody might have crossed it in the past and damaged the thread in the gearbox.