So, the transfer case drain bolt is half blocked by the cross member. Gotta love the Land Rover engineering. It's not bad enough that fluid has to spill its way down the crossmember. I hope someone has a solution that doesn't involve dropping the crossmember

I saw on search some people had luck with a 1/2" seprintine tool? It might just fit, I'll try it but any other suggestions?

 

I just took the cross member off and replaced after. It's only 4 bolts holding it on.

 

Serpentine belt tool works perfectly. If you are in an area that uses salt then there is a really good chance the bolts on the crossmember with snap off.

 

I just put a 1/2" drive ratchet directly into the hole in the plug. Slip a piece of pipe over the handle of the ratchet if you need more leverage.

 

Just a quick mention for half of the other forum members reading this who don’t have this problem: the 2003 and 2004 are the only years this is an issue with. 1999-2002 TC drain plugs aren’t obstructed by the crossmember.

The crossmember bolts on my 04 were stripped and seized, so in the short term I used a nice a fluid syringe and sucked out the old TC fluid from the fill hole. Better than not changing it at all, and just a temporary solution until I replace the frame.

 

It's due to HP22 on 99-02 & HP24 on 03-04. I use a wobble extension on 03-04 and it works great or the 1/2 drive serpentine tool.

 

I also used a wobble 1/2 extension, outside of the POS breaking loose very suddenly causing my to whack my elbow on the ground..

Then when I went to undo the fill port, I used a 1/2 u joint..which was older than me, and suddenly broke apart, causing me once again to hit my already injured elbow onto the pavement, even harder.

Whoever had previously done the TC fluid on that truck not only used ATF, but overtightened the hell out of those plugs, and I have to assume used "a bit" of lock tight. WTF.

 

I was ultimately able to get the drain plug out with a combination of the serpentine belt tool, a socket to 3/4 adapter and an open wrench and an off center partial 1/2" extension. In the future since I will know the intervals and quality of the fluid I may just pull the lowest cover bolt, and then suck out the last bit with my suction tool.