Take a look at the image below.
I need to get at the black cover nestled behind, and just to the left of, that corrugated metal clad line. To clear that line out of my way, I need to remove a 24mm x 5mm fastener from a banjo fitting.
[https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/54506322250_cfbe599c28_h.jpg]
The image in the link above is exactly 90° perpendicular to the previous image. The 24mm fastener is 1) ~40cm straight down, 2) at a 30° angle from horizontal, 3) is violently tight, 4) inaccessible from below or from the wheel well, and 5) accessible only from the top though within an ~10cm pocket with very little space for a typ. wrench swing arc.
I cannot break loose this fastener. I have used a 24mm fixed and flex-head wrenches, and 6 and 12 point shallow sockets. In many, many attempts with all four tools, the 30° angle of the bolt head causes the wrench to “peel” off when I push–there is no room to get one’s free hand down there to hold the tool to the bolt. There’s only enough space above to get one click from the ratchet. The fastener is so far down from above that I can only manipulate tools with my fingertips. I bought a long handle flex-head 24mm ratchet wrench, which solves the “out of reach” problem, but the wrench still peels off the bolt when I put pressure on it. I haven’t ruined the fastener… yet.
All I am attempting to do is move this line out of the way to create some add’l space in an already ridiculously tight space to get on with the ACTUAL repair that awaits behind that black cover. What should have been a two hour job has breeched five full days. I need suggestions for a viable approach.
So I ask those with experience coming up with creative solutions to vexing fasteners and have experience with my predicament: What would you do/what tool(s) would you use to remove this fastener–and get it back on of course.
Would a tool like this work?
Tester
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If you can get a box end wrench on it, smacking a hammer on the wrench shank near the fitting will sometimes break it loose.
You can also slip another wrench onto the wrench on the banjo to gain leverage. Same for a breaker bar. Smacking each of them with a hammer can also help break it free.
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From the demonstration, I speculate that Ratchet Extension Drive Bar doodad would work. It definitely can reach that banjo fitting bolt head, and ALSO eliminates the wrench swing arc problem. And with a wobble extension btwn that tool and a 24mm 6pt socket, maybe the fastener would relent.
Problem is, that tool doesn’t appear to be available locally. It appears it must be ordered directly from CosdA, a Taiwanese firm. Also, I have a one-time-use for the tool. So, bummer.
It never occurred to me to smack the shaft of the wrench. I’ll give that a try. Thanks for the tip!
I put a long screwdriver on the side of the banjo connector and the bolt, mindful not to damage either with aggressive lateral impacts. Predictably, it had no effect.
There is absolutely no room to get a hammer in that space to strike the head of the bolt. I tried to work my cordless auto-hammer in there–the ideal tool for sending impacts into the head of a stubborn bolt. But the tool is too big for the space, and the bolt is too far a reach for the tool.
I’ve planned a new approach: I’m tentatively going to bail on that banjo fitting fastener and instead remove the air plenum and see if that provides me enough space to access the ACTUAL target of this job: that black cover and the widget it conceals.
Holy moly! I had absolutely no idea this sort of tool exists! Thanks for suggesting it. Ordered!
Hitting a wrench with a hammer is likely to result in a damaged tool, and unlikely to result in loosening a difficult fastener. And if you can get a wrench onto the fastener, you should be able to get a breaker bar or other means of extending the wrench in order to add leverage.
Often times, as a DIYer, you just have to remove whatever’s in the way. Even if it’s something very difficult, like having to remove the intake manifold from the engine in order to replace parts that are hidden below.
I’m pretty certain thwacking a box-end wrench with a hammer is unlikely to result in a damaged tool. It seems a comparatively harmless way to deliver shocks to a stubborn bolt where the head isn’t accessible. Lateral whacks to fasteners is generally not good policy. Maybe this is your point, in which case I completely agree.
That shielded line is the thing that is in my way and that I must remove in order to get at the doodad that’s the ACTUAL purpose of this job. A breaker bar won’t work for this task; only a long ratcheting wrench works. A breaker bar will reach the fastener, but there isn’t enough space for the swing arc. I’m lucky to get one click from the ratchet!
You are correct, I have beat the crap out of some of my wrenches over the years and never hurt any..
Besides, you can go buy a cheap wrench just for this job and if you damage it, oh well… lol
But a 24mm (15/16) wrench is huge and you will probably NEVER be able to hit it hard enough to ever hurt it while being used as a wrench…
PRO TIP: A 15/16 wrench might even fit the bolt better/tighter if you have Any play with the 24mm as the 15/16 is a tad smaller at 23.8125 mm, and less likely to round the head off the banjo bolt, again if it will fit…
BTW, you are more out to snap a bolt by putting brute force using a cheater bar on a breaker bar then hitting the same breaker bar with a hammer shocking the tight/stuck bolt.. That is why impact guns use the hammer action…
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A’ye, sir. You are correct! My 15/16 wrench most definitely snuggles that 24mm bolt more so than any 24mm tool I’ve set on it. I’ve managed not to round the corners in my many, many attempts and the many, many slip-offs under wrenching load. A breaker/cheater bar isn’t a tool option for this job anyway, so I have no concern about any negative consequences that might result from using one.
Moving forward, my plan is this:
I ordered a ratchet extension drive bar–a tool purpose-built for my exact dilemma. I’m going to attach a 1/2-in wobble to it, and a 1/2-in 15/16-in shallow 6pt to the wobble. If this doesn’t work, then I will (tentatively) bail on that accursed fastener and remove the air plenum from the top of the engine with the hope that its absence will allow access to that part that I ACTUALLY NEED to work on!
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That is my go-to method of replacing O2 sensors. Cut the wire, slap a box wrench over the hex and give it a whack with a 12 oz ballpeen. Breaks loose everytime and does not hurt the wrench. Hit is about 2 inches down the shaft from the box end.
The double combo wrench trick works well for a cheater and it can work around corners. Puts stress to the open end of the wrench but I have never broken one.
I’ve often called that “poor man’s impact wrench.” I’ve done it plenty myself.
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I bailed on the ornery banjo fitting fastener. Instead I removed the air plenum (aka, intake manifold). Witness the target of my wrenching, nestled under layers like a nun’s cooch and now exposed to my oily fingers!
Plenty of wrenching room now. yeesh! …dunno how guys do this for a living!
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I learned a long time ago, sometimes it is easier/faster to remove something to have more room to work, then to work around it, even if the “manual” doesn’t mention removing said part…
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And sometimes the manual says remove something and we think, Nah, I don’t need to remove that… 
Sometimes we then learn why the manual said that. 
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