ChrisThomas

hello, i decided to take the plunge today after a few weeks of getting prepped and procrastinating for my spark plugs. truck is at 115K. passenger side plugs all came out fine. but all of the drivers side have broken. 2 of them broke and i was able to use the lisle tool and it removed them without hesitation. it was almost fun to use it!! and then the rear most 2 are really chapping my *** right now. they both broke in such a strange way. keep in mind I am not an expert in spark plug anatomy. the other plugs that broke just broke off just below the threads, but these 2 were stuck in the spark plug well. i stuck a large flat head screwdriver down there and broke it off and pulled it out with some needle nose, thinking "aright cool now ill just use my lisle tool" nope. the extraction tool will not bite. it just spins. I've tried twice to get it to grab that broken part and it just won't. does anyone have any ideas as to what i can do to get this out? or what has happened in the breaking process to cause the tool to not bite? any help would be appreciated. I'm on a time crunch i need to finish my truck this weekend for work on monday morning! and I'm almost to tears with this

Triton54HD

that sucks man...well when I did my plugs i had one break. now what i did was not the most conventional way (i'm sure there will be a few people on here who would say it was a horrible decision) anyway, I used a "ladies foot" and a hammer to break the ceramic free(which fell into the cylinder) I then found a drill bit that was just a smidge bigger that the spark plug shield and drilled it out...the bit grabbed the metal sleeve and it came out really easy. could have been just a lucky break on my end, but worth a try. I also used a vacuum to clear the cylinder. that was 5 years ago and no adverse effects..good luck.

jordanb8812

Are you letting the pusher tool bottom out? If not the threads on the extractor tool won't grab ahold of the shield.

LiftedsKRew

I had the same problem. If you've got a cordless impact gun like an 18v Dewalt or similar, use that to get the threads started. Don't try to remove completely this way. It works great to get the tool to bite and then switch over to your socket wrench to finish removing the broken plug. I was frustrated at first trying to use the tool but this made it so much easier.

jdinner

You need to make sure the pusher tool is threaded all the way into the spark plug thread. Then the pusher tool must bottom out. That extra little bit makes all the difference.

ChrisThomas

Yes I'm bottoming the pusher all the way out.

jdinner

Measure to height of the extractor tool when it is not biting. Is it dropping into the plug tip or not? If it is not going into the tip, you will need to gently tap the top of the extractor tool to start it into the plug tip.

Liftedon35s

If the extractor is spinning in the tip try some thread locker and let it dry