Finished the 500 mile break-in of the new front diff, so did an oil change along with the drain and fill of the front diff. Seemed like the metal particles on the diff drain plug magnet were pretty normal:
Only had about a bottle and a half of the Lucas 85w-140 dino gear oil to fill it back up with and after pumping it all out into the diff, it didn't start dripping out like I usually like to see. Good opportunity to use the bore scope to double-check:
Looks good:
Grit looks okay:
On the "WTF" side, the drain plug was once again stuck in diff enough to end up stripping out the 10mm hex. Again had to use the Irwin extractor that was used the last time to get it out. This time though, I don't have a replacement, so I've got one on order from Amazon. Sucks I'll have to drain and refill it again. I'm starting to wonder if 48 ft-lbs is the correct torque value:
What I'm thinking is to use the old plug (which was new as of about 9 months ago) and weld a nut to it and use that going forward. This way the new plug that's on order can be used as a backup in the case that I can't get it welded on there well enough. Can anyone confirm that these are 1.25 pitched 24mm plugs? Also thinking about just ordering something from McMaster-Carr and doing away with the stupid 10mm hex!