September 6, 2011 at 7:21 pm
filed under Tools
Tagged Philips, spanners, tool kit, tools, Tools and Equipment, wrench
Buying tools can be an expensive business, so it is unwise to go out and buy a large number of expensive tools right at the beginning. Instead, buy only the tools you need immediately, and add to them as you go along.
Never buy really cheap tools. With spanners, for example, the jaws will begin to distort and open out within a reasonably short time – leaving you, in effect, paying for two spanners instead of one. Cheap crosshead screwdrivers imitating the Philips or Pozidriv type will soon have worn heads which damage the ends of the screws. Other cheap tools are liable to snap, bend or rust.
Top quality tools, on the other hand, are fine for pro-fessional mechanics, but often unnecessarily expensive for the diy man.
For most jobs, mediumpriced tools will prove perfectly adequate, and it is worth looking at Japanese as well as British, American, German or French tools.
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At one end of the scale, spanners should be of good quality and in drop-forged chrome vanadium. At the other, the quality of a hammer or a pair of pliers is not so important, so that medium or reasonably low-priced tools will serve quite well.
Spanners
The first thing in buying spanners is to find out what type of nuts and bolts the manufacturer of your car used. This information is unlikely to be given in your car’s handbook. So note the make, model, year and chassis number of your car and consult either the manufacturer or a main dealer.
If your car is of British or American design then it is probably assembled with Unified Fine or Unified Coarse nuts and bolts, for which A/F spanners are required. If it is Japanese or Continental the fittings will almost certainly be in metric sizes.
On some older British cars the nuts and bolts are British Standard Fine or British Standard Whitworth. The same spanners can be used for both types, but two bolts with the same thread diameter will have different-sized hexagonal heads and nuts. So both sizes are usually marked on the spanner – for example iVin. BSF/fin. Whitworth. Some cars which use mainly A/F sizes still have a few relics in BSF or BSW sizes.
Some modern cars have mixed thread types. Since different parts of the car can be assembled in various countries, it means that a mainly British-made car could have a German gearbox. In a situation like this A/F spanners will be needed for most of the car but
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metric should you want to take the gearbox apart.
On some smaller nuts and bolts – particularly those used on electrical units – the threads are likely to be British Association. So, if yours is a British car you will need a spanner to fit these as well.
Open-ended spanners
Open-ended spanners are probably the most popular and the most versatile spanners, though not always the most efficient. Each spanner has two openings, one at each end of a different size. The sizes usually go up in steps of iVin. Or 1 mm and, in most cases, the larger end of one spanner is the same as the smaller end of the next size up – for instance, a 7<rin. X -}in. A/F spanner would be followed by a j-in. X – is better than the open-ender. It is stronger, lighter, safer and gives a more positive grip. Because its gripping area has twelve sides instead of the two parallel faces of the open-ender, it can turn a nut more easily. But it cannot entirely replace the open-ender because there are places – a junction in a fuel line, for example – for which it cannot be used.
With ring spanners, the same system of sizing is used as with open-endcrs; that is, they go up iHn. Or 1 mm at a time, with one end of the previous size usually duplicated.
Ring spanners are usually cranked into a swan neck, but they are also available ‘flat’. As with the open-ended sort, ring spanners are made in different lengths, so it is a good idea to buy the shorter type if possible.
Combination spanners
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To cover the A/F sizes -iKn., Mn. And rHn. In both ring spanners and open-enders, a total of four spanners are necessary – two of each type. Somewhat less expensive, since only three spanners are necessary, are the same sizes in combination spanners.
As the name suggests, these spanners have a ring at one end and an open-ender at the other. Both ends are usually the same size.
There is a problem, however, when you want to undo a lock-nut, or hold the bolt-head in one spanner while you turn the nut with another. Where one ring spanner and one open-ender can usually cope in this situation, the com-bination spanner cannot.
Socket spanners
Socket spanners , which can be bought either singly or in sets, are usually available in A/F, metric and Whit-worth sizes in iin., gin., jin. And fin. Drive. They also come in different lengths and depths.
The size, quality and content of a socket set can vary quite considerably but many smaller sets, consisting of six or eight popular-sized sockets, an extension and a tommy bar, are well suited to the diy mechanic.
Alternatively, if you do not want to buy a full set of sockets straight away, you can start with the four or five sockets you need, adding to these a simple extension and T-handle. Then you buy more sockets and other accessories as you need them, one at a time. For a basic socket set, 4 in. drive is a good choice.
Some Japanese socket sets, in particular, can be extremely good value for money, offering many more tools and sometimes selling for as little as half the price of rival European sets. They tend not to last as long nor to be finished as well as their competitors, but have ample life for the non-professional mechanic.
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