• Hi Guest!
    You can help ensure that British Car Forum (BCF) continues to provide a great place to engage in the British car hobby! If you find BCF a beneficial community, please consider supporting our efforts with a subscription.
    There are some perks with a member upgrade!
    **Upgrade Now**
    (PS: Subscribers don't see this gawd-aweful banner
Tips
Tips

Drain plug??

Share this page

N

nomad

Yoda
Offline
Does anyone offer magnetic drain plugs for the diff and trans?

Kurt.
 
Kurt,
I just stick a small re magnet on the end of the plug...works pretty good.
Rut
 
I can get them got the engine, but not seen them for the others. I think if you add a magnet, I would JB Weld it in place first. A rare earth magnet might be more secure.

nomad said:
Does anyone offer magnetic drain plugs for the diff and trans?

Kurt.
Click to expand...
 
Yeah, sticking a small magnet to the plug was considered. Think it would be good to collect the detritus and know how fast it's being produced.

Kurt.
 
I try to remember to stick a rare earth magnet on both the oil filter and on the drain plug on each of our fleet. Lee Valley Tools has a local shop here, but they also have a mail order facility. I don't know if the magnetst really make a difference, but figure that they are cheap insurance. They're usually still attached for the next oil change; biggest risk is forgetting to take them off the oil filter before disposal and then putting the dang thing down and not being able to find it again. Doug
 
Wonder if the bunch'es of refrigerator magnet's we seem to get would do any good stuck on the engine oil filter?

Kurt.
 
Hey, thanks, Bill!! Looks like I might be able to use a screw to attach one of those to the plug!
 
Might check and see if Triumph fits.
 
Bill's suggested magnets are great. I think I will order a bunch that can be screwed to the plugs. Trust that the most though I imagine just sticking them to the plugs would be good enough.

Kurt.
 
I have made magnetic plugs. I take a cylindrical rare earth magnet, measure its diameter, and drill a hole in the plug slightly larger than the magnet. Then I degrease the magnet and the hole and JB Weld the magnet in the hole.

Why do people put magnets on oil filters? Any metal chips that are caught by the filter magnets have already passed through the oil pump and are typically large enough that they would be caught by the paper filter element anyway. Is the goal to catch microscopic particles that are tiny enough to pass through the paper element?
 
I've dealt with these magnets. I can tell you that if you were to get one of the flat discs that is about the same diameter as the drain plug and either 1/8" or 1/4 inch thick, you'll be hard pressed to simply pull if off. They can be slid off easier, but they aren't going anywhere. If, and that is a BIG IF they came off the drain plug they would stick to the bottom of the oil pan and never leave. If you screw it to the plug, the screw could come loose with the vibration. Then what? Well that screw isn't going anywhere either, but I'd use red locktite anyway.
 
Good point, Bill, a screw is probably overkill and extra work.

Kurt.
 
Why do people put magnets on oil filters? Any metal chips that are caught by the filter magnets have already passed through the oil pump and are typically large enough that they would be caught by the paper filter element anyway. Is the goal to catch microscopic particles that are tiny enough to pass through the paper element?[/QUOTE]

Well, I guess (in my case), a combination of wishful thinking, and "why not?": cheap and can't hurt. Plus - since birds migrate based on magnetic fields according to some theories, maybe it'll help me get home? Doug
 
I doubt very much that even a strong magnet, placed on the outside of a filter, will create much of a magnetic field inside the can, anyway. As an experiment, you might try putting one on the outside of a tin can and then touch the inside with a screwdriver to see if there is any field there. Bet you'll hardly feel anythng.

And, yes, as I started to read this thread, I also wondered why anyone would do this, even if it does work.

Oh, and thanks for the link to that "Amazing Magnets" site. It may help with other things I'm doing.
 
Back
Top