7 replies to this topic

[grossgary]

Well I should have bought this thing about a decade ago. I have impact wrenches, but they're all lighter duty. I've probably lost days of my life if you add up all the hours spent on rusted and seized bolts/nuts/axle nuts.

I tried to remove two axle nuts on a parts car that had been sitting for a few years. I had a 3 foot pipe over my socket handle and was jumping up and down on the end of it. Hit it with PB Blaster and a torch multiple times which "always" works...but not this time.

I had been wanting one anyway so I picked up a 780 ft-lb impact wrench last night and used it this morning. Knocked them right off and didn't have to worry about holding the wheel in place to keep from rotating.

AWESOME

What an idiot for not buying this years ago. For anyone else contemplating - get one.

[davebugs]

Yep. Well worth the money. I'm "saving" mine a bit. I only use it when I need it - not for regular duty.

[davebugs]

I bought a long wanted tool this week.

From Ebay a new MAC 1/4 air ratchet. The head is adjustable in 90 degree increments. NIB, manual, etc.


I used one from a friend while working on a 95 LSi last week (I posted a thread about the chewed up harmonic balancer, etc.).

First time I pulled the fans and not the radiator. This tool was made for that it seems - even tightening since it stops at 20 lbs. I found lots of other uses for it as well with it's slim design and low torque.

Air tools - gotta love them.

[NoahDL88]

When i was a mechanic my favorite tool combination was a 3/8ths impact with a set of wobble sockets, could damn near take apart 99% of a car with just those tools.

Oh, the 1/2 inch was great too, but only when i needed the extra grunt.

[GeneralDisorder]

I don't work on automotive professionally, but I do a lot of dissasembly and reassembly (industrial machinery). I prefer an impact with a sensitive trigger than I can use as a power ratchet - never much liked the air ratchets I've used. Not long ago I picked up a Rigid brand cordless drill, impact, flashlight, radio combo on sale for $179 at the depot. I must say that I mostly bought it for the impact and I am totally sold on the cordless option. While it doesn't have the power of my big air guns, it does 90% of what I need and can be used for assembly even around aluminium etc as the trigger is sensitive enough to spin stuff in without actually "impacting" it.

I also have some big air guns - a 650 ft/lb gun of my personal collection and then in the shop we have some really huge stuff - 3/4" and 1" drive, and then there's the portable hydralic power packs . It can get rather interesting at times..... we were pulling a gear off a shaft a while back and had the porta-power maxed out putting 20,000 lbs on the thing, we had the biggest rosebud on the oxy-torch and the gear was cherry red - and another co-worker was whailing on it with a 20 lb sledge (babbit head). When it let go it shot off of the shaft and flew about 12 feet - landed on an air hose and melted through that - then rolled over to a wet spot on the floor (oil or grease soaked into the concrete) and lit that on fire :eek:. Huge bang and crash - air hoses swinging about wildly - flames and smoke - people yelling..... oh yeah!

Needless to say people came running and for a few moments our whole world turned inside out. We have a good laugh about it now though.

GD

[grossgary]

. Huge bang and crash - air hoses swinging about wildly - flames and smoke - people yelling..... oh yeah!

man, wish the camera's were rolling on that one!

[Scoobywagon]

I have 2 Snap-On cordless impact guns. 1/2" and 3/8". I find that I used them for all R&R operations. The 3/8 has a really sensitive trigger. I can use it to install car stereos (steel screws into threaded plastic bosses) without breaking anything, but it also has enough grunt to tear the head off of the bolts in the carrier in the rear diff of a Legacy. Which it did once when I loaned it to a friend. As for the big one....well, the only bolt I've run across yet that it couldn't move is the hub bolt on a 43 year old UNIMOG. But, in fairness, the torque spec on those is QUITE high. As a result of that particular operation, I now also own a 3/4" drive ratchet with a 30 degree bend in the shaft just behind the head. But that was all 230lbs of me on 5 feet of cheater pipe. And bouncing.

[presslab]

I have a newer Snap-On 3/8" cordless impact. It's probably my most favorite tool, I use it for everything from lug nuts to heat shields.

They really did their homework - they chose NiCd batteries instead of NiMH because of their low self-discharge rate. After months of not using the spare battery I popped it on and it had full charge.