I was changing my engine oil on my Sportsman 335 and in the manual it states to remove the bottom fitting from the oil tank to clean an inline screen behind the fitting. I was able to remove the oil line from the fitting, but the fitting will not loosen from the oil tank, I even used an air impact wrench. I don't want to use a breaker bar on this because I don't want to snap the fitting or break the oil tank. I looked at the screen inside the fitting with a flashlight and it looks pretty clean. Any suggestions on either removing this fitting or leaving it alone?

 

Leave it alone..No worth the risk of cracking the tank. If you do regular oil changes 90% of the time this screen will be clean. Only time screens really got bad was when cam lobes were ground down and metal particle ended up on the screen. This was mainly on the 425 and 500 models. On some future oil change if you wish to flush the tank out,pull the tank oil line and plug it up leave the drain plug in and just fill with some kerosene or naptha. Drain it out and used compressed air to dry out the tank.Hook the line back up(use teflon tape on the fitting) fill the tank with oil,pinch the breather hose at the top of the tank with vice grips so the oil pump can prime up quickly. Remove the clamp after it runs for a couple minutes,kill it and check oil level after allowing a couple minutes for the oil to settle.

 

Thanks, I chose to leave it alone at this this time. No need to replace a oil tank just to clean a screen that is already clean. Just frustrating that I couldn't remove a fitting that should be removed. I must be frozen due to dissimilar metal corrosion (steel fitting into an aluminum tank).
Thanks OPT for your advice.