Mechanics: what are your most common tools?

I can recommend GearWrench 80546 for spark plugs: swivels and has a strong magnet.

 

What size flex sockets did you buy?

 

In order by how often I take them out these days, I'd say J2534 dongle, air gauge/chuck, metric sockets, torque wrenches, oil filter cap wrench, vernier caliper (useful to check brake lining thicknesses and tread depths), multimeter.

I've been accumulating tools for a long time so there are a lot of them down there, but I stopped driving my last non-Prius ten years ago and since then a lot of the tools really don't see daylight much.

-Chap

 

That's a set of spark plug sockets. There's 9/16", 5/8", 3/4" and 13/16". They were around $20 at Princess Auto (CDN automotive store).

 

I have been wrenching on my own cars since 1980 (all metric) and motorcycle since 1990 (started with a metric and then a Harley). I do not have a rolling tool chest, though I do stop and look at one every time I am in a home despot I do have a largeish Craftsman tool set I bought for myself back in the 80's. I kept adding to it every time I needed a tool for a job I didn't have (it's way cheaper than paying a mechanic). So now I have a two torque wrenches (one for large settings and one for small settings), a floor jack, two jack stands, numerous drain pans including the one I can take to oil recycling centers, funnels galore, breaker bars, extensions for all three drive sizes, sets of box wrenches, pliers (all kinds), vice (bench and blacksmith leg vice), anvils, forge, forging hammers, forging tongs, drill press, band saw, table saw, wood lathe. I used most of these to fix a car in my car owning career. But if you are only going to change the oil and spark plugs and brakes, just get a good socket set and some screw drivers, torx driver set, hex driver set, jack and jack stands (this really broadens what you can DIY on a car). Get a drain pan for oil if you are going to change oil yourself. That is the best $10 I ever spent. And don't be afraid of not having what you need. Just go and buy it when you need it. That purchase will most likely pay for itself the minute you complete the job.

 

Last year I bought a Kwik-Lift. My big garage only has a 10 foot ceiling and these work. I always keep a car parked on it so I don't loose a space.

The Best Low Rise Vehicle Lift You Can Buy - The Kwik-Lift

 

Hey I thought I was the only one saying that...

My latest acquisition was a 1/4" torque wrench. Yet to need it, but good for things like the EGR studs, spark plugs. It's good to have a set of adapter, so you can use it with larger 3/8" drive sockets, if needed.

 

I've been saying it for years Great minds think alike.

I have a torque wrench for smaller torque range, but it also has a 3/8" drive. It's okay because I have every possible adapter to go between any of the three sizes. Mainly it's from 1/2" <<-->> 3/8", but I can do 1/4 <<-->> 1/2" if necessary. It took me a long time to buy a smaller torque wrench and I made do without, but it's definitely a nice tool to have.

Oh, and of course a multimeter. I have a Fluke 87, but I am an EE and used it for a lot of other things, but a decent mulitmeter is a must in any household, I think. I also have very good electronic soldering capabilities and that can be very handy with cars as well. I have installed many a car radio in the old days. And for my Prius I installed seat heaters.

 

4 hammers 10 oz to 12 pound sledge ..... one of them will make it fit

 

Rules of Brute Force:

1. If it isn't working, you aren't using enough

-end-

 

The first tools I replaced after I got robbed of a particularly nice collection:

3/8" Ratchet and socket set, 12pt metric
24" 1/2" drive breaker bar
cheater pipe
6pt deep socket metric set
combination wrenches (metric)
tread depth gauge
10mm flank-drive wrench
6" mini pipe wrench (brilliant for rusted/degraded capscrews)
3-point plier type oil filter wrench
JIS screwdrivers- there's a reason your Philips screwdrivers don't fit perfectly. Those are JIS screws.

I've added a lot more since then, but my roll-around tool chest is still a rinky dink 5-drawer cart style thing and isn't full.

 

My favorite Sears up the street at the mall just closed its doors. Closest Sears now is quite far away. No more wife at the dept store me at the Craftsman area. I knew something was going on every time I went there it had less an less tools.
Bought alot of stuff there.

My most used tool is a set of JIS screwdrivers that fit like no other tool. There Impacta series is the best.

vessel megadora:

Screwdrivers

 

No tool kit is complete without a trusty Birmingham Screwdriver:

 

Agreed! And if it don't work, you need a bigger one

 

The one thing I'd add about socket sets: never buy a set that contains 12 point sockets -- they are vastly inferior to 6 point. I've been wrenching on all kinds of vehicles for decades -- and I've encountered a 12 point fastener exactly once: on the head bolts of a Volvo Red Block engine. So I went and bought a single 12 point socket in the size needed for that application. I've never touched it since -- and don't expect I ever will.

 

Sometimes it’s much easier to get a 12-point socket on a bolt, like when you reach the ratchet into close quarters. This is pretty common, really.

 

I recently got a #3 and #2 Impacta, the ones that supposedly have the impact driver function. I was anticipating needing the #3, to deal with my daughter's Pilot: she was scheduled for a brake inspection, and the rears have a mini-drum brake, requires rotor removal to inspect.

I wailed away on the rotor screws with Impacta screwdriver and a small sledge hammer, no loosening, and it really seemed like nothing was happening, no rotation.

I got out my Canadian Tire impact driver with a #3 Phillips bit, know full well it's not the best bit for the job, but one wack: done...

The JIS screw drivers are nice, very positive grip, but either I got ones with the impact function defective, or they're just not living up to their claims.

 

...Or you loosened up the screw with impacta and then the other one took the glory I am half-joking, of course. I just got the impacta JIS screw drivers and have not yet tried the impact function, but like the overall feel of the tool. Nice screw drivers.

 

No it definitely was doing squat. I was getting a sore arm, and starting to feel like Quasimodo. Then one love-tap with the Canadian Tire impact driver, you could feel the counterclockwise jerk, and off it came.

 

A 12-point socket gives you position choices 30° apart, as opposed to the 60° choices you get with a 6-point. I usually don't notice that when I am using an actual ratchet driver, because the ratchet clicks are usually a lot finer than 30° anyway, so I just spin the socket on the ratchet until it goes on the bolt.

Where I do notice it is if I am trying to use a breaker bar, which usually has no ratchet, and sometimes you really do want to find the very farthest position you can use in the righty-tighty direction, so you have as much room as possible to lean lefty-loosey on it.

But here's a little gift brought to you by number theory: that 6-point socket also has a square drive hole at the back, with four different ways you can stick it onto your breaker bar. The least common multiple of 6 and 4 is 12, so as long as you are willing to slip the socket off the breaker bar and into another position, you have 12 usable angles 30° apart, just the same as with a 12-point socket.

With a 12-point socket, the trick doesn't buy you anything, because the lcm of 12 and 4 is still just 12.

-Chap