Excellent special tools thread

[tul66]

Brake flaring tool from the OP; great bit of kit, just bought 1.

Lidl rattle gun; not that impressed TBH, didn't undo suspension top mount.

[John F]

Stillsons. Nothing but nothing gets a rusty shock absorber* retaining collar off as well.

 

 

Yep. Stillson & a length of scaff bar... the tool of champions*.

[Asimo]

 

OK it's just a ratchet ring spanner, but because it's 1/4" you can pop any hex-drive screwdriver bit in and win battles with screws in very awkward places.

[dome]

Another vote for the Clarke gun, it's not perfect but it's bloody good. Mine sat on the shelf for a while as I could never be arsed to get it out but it made taking the gearbox off the Auris much easier.

 

My vote goes for a simple thing that I never had for years-a selection of 6 sided impact sockets. Much better than regular 12 sided ones as they won't round off stubborn bolts, they're my go-to sockets now. 

[Sigmund Fraud]

Anything made by Irwin :

 

[AlabamaShrimp]

I get a lot of use out of my Bosch Ixo cordless screwdriver. It is surprisingly powerful and the battery lasts ages on a charge.

 

I've got one of these and it's brilliant for something so small.

 

Honestly one erythromycin special set of tools are by the great Tommy Walsh and his pound shop pals. Suffer some abuse and don't care of they break just don't use them when you need to do a proper job.

[Parky]

Trim removal tools. Because you just know if you use a screwdriver to remove that fragile A pillar trim, you are going to end up with a broken A pillar trim.

 

I used some like this removing bits of my moderns interior, and nothing got bent or broken in the process - much better than using a butter knife or whatever is lying around

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

Hmmm.......

 

Might buy one and stick the battery powered shite on The Bay.

 

 

I've bort one online - needed some other stuff from M'Mart as well so bit the bullet. Being able to fire off wheel bolts, caliper bolts, fuck crankshaft pulley bolts off etc. Why not?

[sheffcortinacentre]

My Parkside mains rattle gun is great.

[chodweaver]

Spring hooks. Until recently I had a set of 5 that were held in a propelling pencil-type holder that was also the handle with a chuck at one end in which you mounted the spring hooks. Brilliant, had it for years since I was a copier tech and used it for just about everything EXCEPT hooking springs: retrieving things dropped down holes and cracks too small for fingers; cleaning crap out of threads; cleaning paint out of screwheads; scratching markings into just about anything; cleaning screen washer nozzles.

 

A bit like this:

 

 

Lost it recently fitting kitchen units. It's probably behind a kick panel somewhere...

[Mr_Bo11ox]

I fancy one of those mains impact guns, specially if they can get a crank pulley bolt out! Which would win in a fight between one of them and dave_numbers' 18v Makita cordless job? (I know it's £70 Vs £300 admittedly)

[chodweaver]

I'd fancy the mains one only if it was new and the Makita wasn't. For £70, I can't believe it's going to give the sort of service that Dave's has, but then I only expect to have to deploy it a few times a year - say twice for changing the camper from summer to winter tyres and back (though that is 24 bolts each time) and one crank bolt. Me doing any more than that in a year is wishful thinking...

[chodweaver]

+1,000,000 for water pump/gland nut pliers. Even in standard size, they're invaluable.

 

(Goes off browsing for Dave_numbers approved supersize ones)

 

Sent from my BV6000 using Tapatalk

[steveo3002]

knipex cobra..expensive but work as shown here , way better than no name jobbies

 

 

knipex pliers wrench is good too

 

[Kiltox]

Knipex are the tits. Borrowed a pair of grips but never bought one sadly.

 

Fucking lol at “ke-nipex” from the yank in the video

[SiC]

I fancy one of those mains impact guns, specially if they can get a crank pulley bolt out! Which would win in a fight between one of them and dave_numbers' 18v Makita cordless job? (I know it's £70 Vs £300 admittedly)

Makita will win easily. Apart from that Makita tends to be a bit more truthful on spec numbers, the Makita is rated to 1600Nm Vs the Clarke's 450Nm. It's why I splunked the extra cash on the Makita, buy once and all that.

 

You can get the Makita for £230 if you already have LXT batteries and charger.

 

The only question is whether you need 1600Nm of torque. However my reasoning is, if you need to get out the impact wrench,

you probably want as much as you can get. I'd just be loathed to use it on small fixings (could turn down the power mind). But then small fixings are a risk of sheering even with less powered tools anyway.

[Kiltox]

A cordless would be so much less hassle than corded if you have the coin to spare.

[steveo3002]

id go cordless 

 

the mains ones are big so limit you more for getting into places , plus by the time you got an extension lead out etc you could be done with the cordless , dont be fooled into thinking theyre all the same , cheap tat wont even crack off a wheel nut 

[Mr_Bo11ox]

For me those things are all about crank pulley nuts!!!! Most other stuff I dont mind attacking with a breaker bar, WD etc but I'm sure those impact guns must revolutionise cam belt swaps!

[lisbon_road]

I use the starter for crank pulley nuts/bolts.  Put a breaker bar on a piece of wood, stand well back and run the starter.  A lot simpler than it sounds.  I dread to think of the days I used to try and undo them with sockets, bars and scaffold tubes.  

[Kiltox]

id go cordless

 

the mains ones are big so limit you more for getting into places , plus by the time you got an extension lead out etc you could be done with the cordless , dont be fooled into thinking theyre all the same , cheap tat wont even crack off a wheel nut

For the person that wants to swap wheels a couple of times a year or whatever there’s equally no sense in spunking out for cordless

 

I did loads with my Clarke mains gun but if I had the coin at the time I would’ve gone cordless. It’s 4x the price though!!

[artdjones]

I use the starter for crank pulley nuts/bolts. Put a breaker bar on a piece of wood, stand well back and run the starter. A lot simpler than it sounds. I dread to think of the days I used to try and undo them with sockets, bars and scaffold tubes.

That's a good idea on most cars but not the ones where the crank pulley isn't keyed to the crank.With those you will end up with a piston/valve interface.

[coalnotdole]

I've just bought a set of knipex cobra's based on seeing them this thread.

 

Hopefully they will replace my much used knipex waterpump pliers which have seen years of abuse.