jutny

funny, i had NO trouble with a craftsman 12 (is it?) mm open/box end wrench to get the carb off... 5 minutes.

Acuspeed

I don't know about the hardest, but I remember the one that hurt the most for me.

I don't even remember what I was doing, but I was using a drift pin to remove a bolt (if I remember right it, I was removing the pass. side front strut) and I was being careful about my finger/hand placement 'cause I knew it was about to give some. Anyway, at the last moment, I allowed my finger to slip into the danger zone and the bolt came free about half a second later. I got a pretty good whack to my index finger. From the knuckle down it hurt like crazy and from the knuckle up it was really numb and bleeding. Nothing a little Neosporin and a bandaid wouldn't fix, but man it sure didn't feel too good.

peejay

LOL Flywheel nut...

Little story for y'all...

I recently acquired a dead S4 13B 6-port from a fellow forum rotorhead. Rear rotor blown all to hell and back, coolant stains from external leaks between the housings, 180,000 miles, fun fun fun! Engine sat ouside in the snow for a couple weeks, it got lugged into the basement last week, and Saturday morning after a full night of deathmatching (no sleep) we decide to tear into it.

I lost my original flywheel holder tool (4' piece of 1/8"x1" angle iron with two holes drilled exactly 5" apart at one end, to bolt to two pressure plate bolts) so I made another one. Hmm, this 1/16"x3/4" should be enough. Lug the engine to n open space in the garage, bolt the stopper to the flywheel, stand on it, pull up on the breaker bar.

Bent the stopper. Broke it, actually, at one of the bolt holes. Guess it really does need to be 1/8"x1"!

Oh well, that didn't work. Jam a 1" prybar in between the flywheel counterweight and the bellhousing area of the rear housing (engine port-side-down, it'd make sense if you had an engine in front of you) and pulled. Nuthin'. Put a big hunk of pipe over the breaker bar and pulled. PRYBAR starts bending. Pulled harder. Prybar bending more. Put everything into it. *PIPE* bends like a paper towel roll. ARRRGGHHH!!!!

Sat there looking dumbly at it for a while, backs aching. Friend says, "I know. There a six bottles of beer upstairs. Let's drink them (it's 8am) and throw the bottles at it and see what happens!" We do not do this.

After I got home, and slept for 20 hours, I went out to the garage. 5 minutes of rooting around, I find my original, guaranteed-to-work-cause-i-used-it-twice-already flywheel holder. I also find my SuperBeefy 2" diameter cheater pipe. Round Two is next weekend...

V8kilr

my first time swapping a carb on my 84 gsl took me less then 30 minutes complete swap

V8kilr

the absolute worst is the two "one on each side" out of eight bolts that hold the front sway bar in place,

there huge bolts and if you dont break them "I broke both on one car managed to get one off on another" you will need a huge breaker bar the whole time to get them off. even to the last thread


as for bolts hard to just get on, the front air-oil cooler line on 84-85 cars. I think its like a 22 mil and there is no room to turn it, and if you do you will probably bump the radiator.

syklone

I'd have to agree with the 4th nut on the carb. I think I actually lost mine someware in the heat shielding of the exhaust manifold. Opps.

But one that is a real PITA is the long bolt for the starter. Had to do that on last weekend. I was only able to move the wratchet one click before running into the sterring linkage. Took forever as the thing was only turning about 1/32 of a turn each time. I guess I'll have to get an impact wrench.

peejay

Wow, I dunno what you've got, but my starter (stock '85 12A) practically falls right out.

82transam

iTrader: (18)

I must have really good luck or something, cause getting my carb off was no sweat, the oil cooler was easy as hell and just about everything I've fiddled with seems pretty easy. Haven't touched the cluch stuff yet so that may be my downfall

VashtheStampede

ive had two engines sitting in my garage for almost 6 months cause i cant get the flywheel nuts off them.

i had another thought, though. for anyone who has done the 2nd gen oil cooler swap, the cooler hose fittings pretty well suck since there is no way to hold the cooler steady while turning the hose ends. apparently they didnt think it necessary to put a hex end on the cooler side hose fitting like the AC hoses have where they join. this especially sucks if you havent properly mounted the oil cooler to begin with. hehehe

Directfreak

iTrader: (2)

I bought my SS slave line from RX7.com
I haven't been able to replace it because I don't have any line wrences - crap. Is an open "Box" wrench the same as a line wrench?

The rachet wrenches are called "Gear-Wrench" at Sears, and they are AWESOME. I have both Metric and Standard sets in both long and shorty's.

The flywheel nut? - Easy with A 1/2 inch (or bigger) Impact wrench.

gamble302

well one hard part to remove was the front half of the car from the back half. good old saws all
the one time i dont my camera.....
parts cars are fun

Rotary13B1

iTrader: (8)

I use these in snap-on form for all the hydraulic lines. PITA if you strip those corners...

Gotta love the brother-in-law that's got all the tools..only tools I had to buy were the flywheel socket, pilot bearing puller, and some STANDARD flare nut wrenches for my braided brake lines from mazdatrix (dunno why they COULDN'T use metric!!)

SoRRoW

Open box,Im not sure..

Open end wrenches,wil strip the line out,Line wrenches are diffrent than any other wrench,Yu cant just slid it over the nut,yu have to get it on the line,then pull it on the nut.Cause the wrench grabs liek %75 of the nut compared to a regular wrench that grabs like %50,

Ok I just looked on my package they call it a flare nut wrench I was looking for it online so you can see.



Sears Item #00942013000
Mfr. Model #42013
$29.99

My g/f got them for me a couple years back on my b day ..and they saved my *** alot of times,when your workin on customers car you dotn want to use half *** tools then screw up peoples cars up,and if you did some shops will make you pay out of yoru pocket for the damaged item.

....

I have to admit the 2 worse things that I have came across any 7 has to be the flywheel nut AND the front main pulley bolt..

We had the engine out of the car and SHOULD of loosend the front pulley bolt WHILE it was in the car,
I broke 3 wratchets tring to take it off,luckly it was craftsman,

The next has to be the flywheel nut,if you dont have a 54 mm socket,you wont get it off.

If you had to buy a tool for this just buy the racing beat flywheel tool,I got a hold of one just to borrow and once I got it,The nut came loose with 2 hits from the hammer.

SoRRoW

Oh and the gear wrenches was one of the best inventions,

The stubby ones kick *** in the hard to reach spots,Only thing I have seen was the tend to flex a little with alot of torque applied on them.

REVHED

The brake system hydraulic fittings can be a bitch even with the correct wrenches. Last time I had to bust out the dremel after I completely stripped one of the *******.

Denny

I'm happy to help the Car-Cowboys that come into my Hand-tool/Automotive Department at our Sears Hardware store.....We sell some really neat tools, and I love teasin' the guys who come in with broken tools.

I'm surprised that nobody has mentions the lower caliper bolt on '84-'85 front brakes. Except for the SE, the bolt sits into a "dished" section of the backing plate, which in turn is almost completely covered by the steering knuckle. It's a 17 mm bolt. Even when you're lucky enough to break it loose you still have to "pry" the steering knuckle away to get the bolt completely out! Manuals recommend a large screwdriver or a prybar to move the knuckle away while you put your fingers into that Danger Area to pull the bolt out!!!!

I bought a cheapo 17 mm offset wrench, ground down the areas where I needed to in order to fit inside the dish, and grip the bolthead solidly. Once the bolt was out I ground the end down so that it just passed by the knuckle and into it's home.

A tip of the 'ol Stetson,
Denny...

82transam

iTrader: (18)

Good one Denny, I forgot about that one. I agree that bolt was a bitch, I was able to use an un-modded offset head wrench, but it was pretty tough. When I got it out I made the mistake of taking it all the way out, my bad, that thing is reeeeeeealy hard to get back in the hole.

pratch

Well, my vote is for the intake manifold bolts. Mainly because during removal of the stock to put my new one on - I sheared 2 of the studs... Luckily there was enough to rethread and use.

On the same note, 18 year-old rusted muffler bolts tend to be really really fun.

Wankelguy

Craftsman ratchets aren't worth the powder to blow them to hell. Balky, coarse pitched dogs, I just hate 'em. My OLD craftsman ratchet lasted 20 years. When it finally bit the dust, I got a new one from Sears. It lasted 6 months. The next one lasted about a year. The one I currently have is ready to go now. No more Crapsman ratchets for me, I'm getting a Proto or S-K (almost as good as a Snap-on, or MAC, for far less money.) Same story with Craftsman screwdrivers, let one of the Phillips heads slip just once and the ridiculously soft metal deforms so it never mates properly again. Seems like Sears philosophy is "make it cheap enough and we can replace them a few times and still make money". I don't really have any complaints about their sockets, though, they seem to be okay. Wrenching in the Navy, I learned to work by feel a lot as most of the pumps, valves, etc. that I would work on were obscured by piping, etc.
This is a talent that has served me well in working on cars. I repair microcassette recorders for a living now, and the tiny parts used in those make working on cars seem easy by comparison. "Tough" nuts and bolts merely require a bit of creativity. Plus, I have a stunning array of various cheater bars and pipes to aid me. -WG

82transam

iTrader: (18)

I'm with you on this one wankelguy, most of craftsman's tools are fine, but the ratchets are ****, mine are all choppy and feel like they are gonna fall apart.

RotorMotorDriver

iTrader: (1)

My Dad and I have broken so many Craftsman ratchets its not even funny. Lately, they wont even replace the damn things, they give us a overhaul kit and expect us to do it...To hell with that.

The one thing I want to say in their defense is that you mentioned them being coarse feeling. By that do you mean the ratchet mechanisim? Because you can buy all kinds of different ratchet mechanisims. I have a 3/8" drive fine and coarse ratchet .

~T.J.

peejay

Craftsman tools are designed to have a 15% failure rate so that you go back to Sears for your free replacement.

The hardest part about retail sales is getting people in the door. Free replacement tools get you in the door...

82transam

iTrader: (18)

exactly peejay, and RMD, I'm talking about the fact that it was pretty smooth and latley it is really rough, like a gear or something is chipped. Oh well, I broke a few other craftsman tools I'll just go get them all replaced at once.

RotorMotorDriver

iTrader: (1)

Haha, good thinking Sean .

~T.J.

DriveFast7

iTrader: (1)

the two nuts under the oil filter pedastal are particularly difficult.

upper starter bolts aren't fun.