Making/improvising Special Tools

Small potatoes compared to building your own bridge but, here's the yoke wrench I made. I made it extra long for leverage against that 200l lb-ft torque spec. It's just flat steel. I never really finished it. I might make the end of the handle a bit more ergonomic at some point. Either to make it easier to hold in your hand or so it lays better/flatter against the garage floor. I'd like to make it a little prettier too so it doesn't look like a hack job like it does in it's current rough design.

 

For all those rusty bolts and nuts I quit using purchased stuff. Best think I've ever used is a 50/50 mix of ATF fluid and acetone. Few drops and a few minutes later they come off. I have not broken a bolt using that stuff. Granted it might take a couple days of soaking but it has always worked...so far.

 

The air conditioner in my wife's car quits when it's above 89*. Convenient, huh? I found out it's a common problem due to a worn clutch on the AC compressor. There should only be .3mm gap between the clutch face and pulley. Hers was measuring .91mm. All it takes to fix it is to remove the face, remove a shim, and put it back together.

Easier said than done. It's a Volvo with a transversely mounted 5 cylinder. It's tight in there. I had exactly 1 3/8" between the clutch face and the unibody. The "$111 down" rental puller from O'Riellys was never going to work. This was my workspace, looking up from underneath.



The clearance was so tight, I could only get a 10mm socket on the retaining bolt by holding it with vice grips. I had to make two special tools. One to hold the clutch from spinning while loosening/tightening the bolt, and the other to press the clutch face off. After about 8 hours of trial and error and swearing, the final versions worked like a charm.



My final spec is .41mm. If it 'kinda' worked at .9mm, it should work just fine.

BTW, it is jeep related in a way... the wrench on the left was made from leftover steel that I made the corners and dash out of for Mighty Mouse.

 

Puller/installer/scrapper for dana 30/44 axle shaft seal

What i use is a 5/8" threaded rob by 3 foot long, some washer that has the right diameter.


Just put it againts the seal, couple of hammer strike and seal is off. You can also use it as a scrapper so you can take all the dirt inside the tube.

For reinstall pretty easy too, just need a wilder washer and you turn the nut until seal are at their right place.


So total cost for this custom tool is about 10$. The right tool for this job is around 125-150$ so it's pretty cheap my way and it work as a charm

 

Have you ever tried to torque the pinion nut? I made my own tool for the job. I use two 1" box tubes with holes and a 3/4" solid rod. Brace on the floor and torque away.

 

Used this to remove the outer oil seals on the AMC 20. Just an old bolt and lawn mower pulley.

 

My "special" tool for cleaning out front axle tubes on open knuckle axles. A piece of 1/4" threaded rod, a few nuts, 2 fender washers and scotch brite. I use one fender first to scrape the majority of the junk out, then I put the scotch brite on and run it through with the drill. Be sure to double nut each side to prevent loosening. I also spray some brakekleen in the tube before running it through. Some trimming of the pad might be necessary for smaller axles. This is on my dana 60 for my 55 chevy. It scrunches up like a ball hone and works very well. After running this through a few times, I spray some more brakekleen in and push some rags through with a pipe like cleaning a gun barrel.

 

We made a four man tap handle for a 3 1/2" NPT tap at my old shop.

 

48" Pipe wrench worked for me. Chinese import was cheap enough and I use it for all kinds of things when I need "Mungo" leverage.

 

I don't often brag, but I came up with a pretty clever solution to something, so I thought I would share it with you guys... I have an old wood splitter that I got in a trade. You know, one of those things that gets in the way of working on Jeep's... I've been tinkering with it and changed the valve. The new valve had some huge plugs in it.

I didn't have a wrench big enough so I went searching the auto parts stores in town with no luck. 3/8ths is the biggest. So I was in Tractor Surprise and stuck a bolt in the plug.

It fit, grabbed a couple nuts and presto!



With a little effort the plug came right out... Not bad for less than a dollar. Anyway, I thought it was cool. Laters

 

What is this for? Only spanner wrench I can think of is the one I use to take hose apart as a fireman.

 

The disc on a 4" angle grinder would require a spanner wrench to get the nut off. Usually a nut with two holes in it. The pins on the spanner go into the holes. Any wrench in England is a spanner.

 

You use a spanner to put a kitchen sink drain together too.

It's too bad Foto suck it ruined so many good posts.