Wrench

[LSMFT]

I was wanting to change the grease in my transaxle on my Jetta diesel. I it takes a 17mm allen type hex wrench to remove the fill and drain plugs. I went to 3 different auto parts stores and K-mart and none have a hex wrench larger than 10mm. I went on line and found many from $9 to $25 to $50 for a wrench for this. So I found a 17mm hex bolt in my shop, double nutted it and used a regular wrench to turn it to extract my fill and drain plugs. Works great. fyi

[Shaun]

You can also find hex wrenches mounted in 3/8 and 1/2 inch square drive sockets...

[LSMFT]

Yes, but not 17mm. I would have bought anything that fit.

[Jay-T]

Interesting trick.

[Nate Nagel]

Proto makes one, I have one, but it ain't cheap. For occasional use your solution works nicely. I believe that a VW lug bolt has a 14mm head, FWIW. I also have a regular Allen wrench in that size, but I can't remember where I got it. Probably a yard sale. Don't remember who made it.

nate

[Joe]

[George]

Like this?

[Doug Miller]

Fourteen bucks at Sears. Item #42670 .

No, it doesn't. If you don't care about rounding off the corners on the head, you can use -- sort of -- an 11/16" wrench on a bolt with a 17mm hex head, but an 11/16" Allen wrench will *not* fit into a 17mm hex socket. It's too big: 11/16" = 17.46mm.

Besides, even if it would fit (which it won't), who the hell has an 11/16" Allen wrench in his toolkit?

Why bother? 17mm combination wrenches are easy to find. No reason to use the wrong size wrench.

Pffft. Sounds like you're not familiar with the two-nuts trick. There's no need to tack weld anything. Just tighten the two nuts against each other; then use a wrench on the far nut to loosen the entire assembly, or the near nut to tighten.

[Nate Nagel]

However, if your VW is of "a certain age" and the previous owner didn't regularly change the transaxle loob, you might actually need the right tool, a 3/4" drive breaker bar, and a cheater pipe besides. BTDT. I've found myself in situations before (e.g. removing exhaust studs) where double nutting just wouldn't work without welding. Never actually had to use the trick mentioned above on a VW transaxle, as I had the correct tool available to me early in my VW-owning career.

Oh, and in case it's not flamingly obvious - ALWAYS remove the fill plug

*first.* Otherwise you could end up in a situation where you're trying to decide between drilling out the fill plug or else measuring the capacity of oil specified in the shop manual and finding a funnel small enough to fit through the speedo drive hole.

nate

[LSMFT]

It's a 2001 I bought brand new and they have never been off. Of course I garage it. I think it's obvious, I always take the fill plug out first if only to see where the level is and how fast it's losing fluid. It wasn't full, I couldn't even reach it with my finger. It's not leaking so they must have never filled it all the way. 2 quarts of full synthetic gear oil and it's as good as new.

[LSMFT]

That's the best price yet. But don't need it now. I'll be in the nursing home or in a box before I have to change it again.

[Steve Barker]

Now, go one step further, get you a cheap wrench, and weld the bolt to it.

[-blank-]

I would have bought the size larger in SAE and ground a little off of each flat. According to a conversion program I have, 17mm is

0.6692893 inch. I'm guessing a 11/16 would be slightly larger. 3/4" would be 0.75 so it's one or the other. I have yet to find software that converts metric sizes to fractions.

[Doug Miller]

Why don't you spend a moment doing an online search? A few seconds at Sears.com, for instance, locates a 17mm hex bit socket in 1/2" drive -- good luck finding "the size larger in SAE".

[Caesar Romano]

On Tue, 08 Jun 2010 17:36:58 -0400, LSMFT wrote Re Wrench:

Great one! Thanks for the tip.

[Stormin Mormon]

Weld, or epoxy.

[Stormin Mormon]

With a couple more pushes on the calculator, it is 21.4/32, or pretty close to 11/16. I though the bolt upside down into the allen socket hole was a good work around.

[N8N]

You can do it in a spreadsheet; I've done this for drill bit sizes.

nate

[willshak]

Not software, but a link

[Joe]

Mea culpa...you're right. I left off the part about grinding about .

020" off three flats.

Besides me, most pro mechanics and millwrights.

Have had many jam nut set ups fail. Usually my fault for using less than grade 5 nuts. Red Loctite works well, too. Your point is well taken, though.

Joe