So winter is coming around and its time to check on my beater car, a 97 Geo Tracker... Its actually my wife's old car, that she got a few years ago, when we were dating... without consulting me first..


Anyways, I notice the fill and drain plugs on the rear diff are basically stripped. Its the plugs that take your 3/8" square drive.. Actually, it looks like the previous owner coated the whole rear axle in a thick black coating.. and pretty much sealed and filled up most of the square hole. I can see someone tried to remove the fill plug, and failed, cause there's not much engagement.. and the drain plug looks more like a slight square dimple filled in..


Soo, any suggestions? Level of difficulty? Unfortunantly, I don't have much skills per say in troubles like this.. but I am curious to know and perhaps try.. cause I know one of these days I'll eventually strip/break a bolt off in my Camaro, and this might be a good learning experience...

Hot wrench (torch, propane should work) to burn the goop out of the fill plug or just heat it until you can scrape it out. My next idea would be a punch to try to break up the junk in the plug. Lastly, try a solvent like acetone or lacquer thinner to see if it'll soften whatever is in hole (be sure it's cool before putting flammable liquids near it...).

Good luck.

Start simple: brake clean or PB Blaster. Sounds like undercoating- which will soften/dissolve in most solvents.