gas cap broke on my dad's truck

[ehall]

Pops has a 2004 F-150. I was putting some gas in it and then put the cap on like normal, but it didn't feel right so I tried backing it off and the cap split in half with the grip in my hand and the bottom half still in the truck. I am able to push the two halves back together but the cap doesn't ratchet and doesn't back off. I'm guessing I cross-threaded the cap somehow and the cap split like a fuse.

How do I get the bottom half out? I can't turn it by hand and the lower half is "complete" with a screen and whatnot so I don't want to puncture it if I don't have to

Google is useless for this btw, since all of the matches are for locking caps with a lost key

 

[souske]

Its pretty hard to cross thread a gas cap. Think of how much of a problem this would be if any skill at all was required. The little rachet part just breaks sometimes.

Can you get a pipe wrench, strap wrench, or oil filter vice grips on it? Dont worry so much about making it worse, you will need to replace the entire cap as a unit.

 

[ehall]

I got a large pair of channel-lock pliars to grab the bottom half and was able to back it out. Pretty big vacuum on it, I guress from the mixed weather we're having here. It's impossible to cross-thread this thing, so I guess it's just broken