Yay Cheap Chinese Tools!

Okay, it's a small win - but in wrestling with the 928, I'll take it. Pulled the oil pan off to change a seal on the pick up tube (a multi-hour venture in itself). Naturally the pick up tube bolt is a stripped allen head deal. Tried a screw extractor set I had around - no joy. Remembered someone said try a cheap torx socket one size too big - pound it into the bolt head and give it a go. Totally worked - I did have to sacrifice a $1.00 torx bit. Whoever suggested it - thanks! Bad news was the oil level sender had disintegrated into little bits laying around the pan. Thankfully none of the bits made it past the internal screens and baffling. As the saying goes - assembly is the reverse...

sacrificial chinese tools are an acceptable thing in this case. I hadn't seen that tip before......thanks for posting it (again)

My wifes uncle scours garage sales for wrenches. He probably has a dozen of every size between 4mm and 2 inch. Hes always cutting them up and welding them back together to make random specific tools for odd jobs (hes a factory mechanic at a stealership, so he has come up with useful tools to make difficult jobs faster). Somehow, he always remembers what these crazy tools are for ...adjusting the timing belt tensioner on a 95 corolla without removing the cover or some such crap...FSM way would take 45 minutes, with his special tool he can do it in 20...that kinda thing. theres got to be about 30 frankentools in his bay in the shop, and he knows every one. But he wont cut up a craftsman or snap on brand, those he keeps and sells off once hes able to make a whole set.

putting the flywheel and clutch in my odyssey required 10mm and 17mm 12 point sockets. I hate 12-pts and only keep 6-pt sockets in my tool set. I found the 2 sockets I needed in a bucket at the pawn shop for 10 cents each. I dug past the chinese and taiwanese crap and found some Japanese ones that seemed decent. They did the job perfectly.

JoeyM wrote: sacrificial chinese tools are an acceptable thing in this case. I hadn't seen that tip before......thanks for posting it (again)

Yep, I had to sacrifice two different 16mm sockets one time when someone had Thor tighten the lug nuts of an E30 I purchased.

Broke a 17mm Craftsman, then cracked another, and even the 16mm I used to hammer on I still had to jump on the end of the ratchet.

This is what happens when you start installing studs on your daily driver at 8pm after a long day and don't have an impact wrench. Exciting.

I've got a 13mm combination wrench bent into a 3D "S" to reach a bolt on an Esprit shifter, several other wrenches or socket based tools custom made for various HD, Toyota or Lotus applications. When I make a tool, I take an engraver and write on it what it's for. Like "4AG flywheel hold down." After making various tools for 30 years, sometimes I forget what I made that one for. I've even made duplicates because I forgot I made one, then found the original made 20 years ago. Now I have 2 of those.

I actually have a bucket that I keep my "junk tools" in. I went through my tool set a few years ago and anything that was junk, like cheap Chinese sockets or wrenches (as opposed to quality Chinese sockets or wrenches) got put in the bucket. When I need to make something, I go to that bucket first for the donor tool. If I can't find anything, then I hit the barrels at the pawn shops.

Dr. Hess wrote: ...tools custom made for various HD, Toyota or Lotus applications. When I make a tool, I take an engraver and write on it what it's for.

this is a good plan. (...and something I should have done before)

I still have 4 custom bent wrenches for pulling the carburetor off a 1983 Nissian Stanza. Two of them were bent, in opposite directions, to pull one nut.

I hated that car. I still hate that car.