101st

I'm looking for the correct original rear end drain plug for a very early 62. It appears that the original plug is the same as the oil pan plug and may or may not have a letter in the center. I've seen a couple with an "A" . But could this be an oil pan plug being used as a R/E drain plug? Did they all have letters or were some plain? Are they completely interchangeable? What's right for the 'early '62? Thanks much for any help you can provide. Bill

62Jeff

I had no idea that any 62 had a drain plug in the rear housing. All of the factory photos I've seen of 62s had no drain plug.

So is this an early 62-only type of thing?

Plasticman

My 62 does not have one either (but it is not an early one either).

Plasticman

101st

Yes, 1961s and 1962s through approx. SR 1,800 had a drain plug bottom center. Thanks,

Bill

TopLess62

I have serial # 00098 1962 and mine does have a drain plug.

DZAUTO

here is what I can tell you.
It may be possible that very early 62 Corvettes and Pass cars got a rearend drain plug. Personally, I've NEVER seen a drain plug on a 62 Vette or pass car. It is NORMALLY accepted that 61 was the LAST year that a drain plug was installed on rearends. But, as mentioned, that doesn't mean the early 62s (Vette or car) didn't get one. It is a very common occurance throughout production years for early or late cars to have something that was on (or not on) the previous or following year.
One single example. The hard top for 56 Corvettes is unique to 56-62 Corvettes, in that it DID NOT HAVE the 2in wide stainless outside header trim piece on the front of the hard top. BUUUUUUUUUUUT, it is accepted that the VERY LATE 56 hard tops got this trim piece, which became standard on all 57-62 hard tops. Thus, maybe VERY early 62 rears god a drain plug.

The Oil pan and rearend drain plug threads are in fact the same, thus, they are interchangeable. A standard item that I add to ALLLLLLLLLLLLL of my oil pans AND rearends is a magnetic oil pan drain plug from Chevy parts dept.
The early drain plugs (original) on oil pans and rearends had a BIG, flat, hex head (7/8in) and the later, and replacement, drain plugs had a 9/16in hex head.
I've never looked at the head to see if there was a letter on it, but I will go out right now and see if I can find a drain plug with a letter on it.

scotty t

when you add the drain plug is there a bung you weld in or do you just drill and tap the housing?

DZAUTO

OK, I looked through all of my original, 7/8 hex head style drain plugs and ONLY 2 had letters. One had an L and the other had a A inside a circle on the head. I have NO CLUE which are (or were) pan or rearend drain plugs.

DZAUTO

Scotty,
If you wish to ADD a drain plug to your rearend, DO NOT just tap the bottom of the housing. THE THREADS WILL EVENTUALLY STRIP OUT!!!! The metal is too thin to last!
Locate a good nut with the correct threads for the drain plug. Drill a hole in the rear and tap threads. Screw in the drain plug and snug it up tight. Screw the nut onto the plug inside the rear and snug it up, but not real tight------------------just snug. Weld the nut to the housing. When finished, I like to drill a hole through 2 of the flats on the nut so that more oil will drain out from the inside of the rear.

TopLess62

It is a common sense thing that GM would order X amount of axles, intakes, blocks, widgets, whatever for a particular model year and very often that production would run over or under the car production of that year. I am sure GM said to thier axle supplier: "We will take 15,000 axles for the 61 production year at $100 per axle". Of course, they only made 13,000 61 cars (give or take) and so the early '62 models got the left overs. Hence the first 1800 cars have a plug.

scotty t

thanks DZ

101st

Very helpful. Thanks to all, especially DZAUTO ! I had not considered hex head size differences.

Bill

JohnZ

"L", "A" in a circle, and "TR" were commonly seen drain plug head markings on the 7/8"-hex plugs; GM didn't buy axles in those days - they made their own at Detroit and Buffalo.

101st

Thanks, John, for the very useful info and photos,
Bill