On Tue, Dec 11, 2012 at 9:59 PM, Tom Carchrae <tom@carchrae.net> wrote:

> You might keep trying that route - it is much easier than lowering the
> rad (and draining coolant).  Try just turning with just your finger
> tip or perhaps a bit of rubber over it.  If it is rough at all, it'll
> keep spinning - there is not much pressure on it, unless the threads
> got mangled.
>
>
Again, thanks for the tip.  Tried that, but no luck.  However, I have the
advantage of having a bunch of sons so I commandeered a couple of them and
we lowered it and I was able to get the drill in there enough to get a hole
drilled for the extractor.  Came out pretty easily, but was never really
finger-unscrewable until maybe the very end.  Did this without removing the
hoses--I put a 2x4 on my jack and when we lowered it we let it rest on that
while I did the drilling operation.

The washers at the top were in pretty good shape but the ones on the bottom
weren't.  I bought some 3/8 x 1 1/2 x 1/8 rubber washers and laid the old
ones on top and roughly cut away the extra.  I don't think that was really
necessary, but I didn't want to find out if it was when I was down there
trying to hold it up and screw it in at the same time (only one kid was
still up when I did the replacement).

Thanks everyone for your suggestions.

mike