Re: Arghh... stripped oil pan drain bolt on 3B!

[audidudi@mindspring.com (Jeffrey J. Goggin)]

>I try the 1/2 inch air wrench (suppposedly 200-230 ft lb.s torque)
>in the reverse position to loosen the bolt.

You might try "rocking" the bolt back-and-forth by running the rattle-gun
both forwards and backwards ... sometimes this works, sometimes it doesn't.

>Now before I lose what little is left of the flats on the formerly
>17mm bolt, I need your advice.  Should I try heat (I'm nervous
>because of the aluminum oil pan), an easy out (do-able, but will it
>take the torque?), or should I try the messy job of dropping the
>oil pan with the oil in it, and then sending the pan/bolt to a 
>machine shop?

If it were me, I'd pull the pan and fix this problem on the bench.  It's
going to be a messy job regardless (btdt with a BMW years ago) and if you're
careful, you can remove the pan without spilling too much oil.  From there,
the repair should be fairly easy.
________________________________________________________________________
    _                _
   / |      _| o    | \       _| o  Jeffrey Goggin
  /__| | | / | | __ |  | | | / | |  audidudi@mindspring.com
 /   | |_| \_| |    |_/  |_| \_| |  http://www.mindspring.com/~audidudi/
________________________________________________________________________