OK, now that I think about it, when we took the training wheels off the kid’s bike, I kept the brackets. They are about 2" x 6" flat steel and bent a little at one end. On that end there is a half moon cut out to fit on the bike frame. It is just the handiest tool and I’ve used it to pull door panels, hold steering wheels down while you put the snap ring on and many other odd jobs. When I need something to pry or scrape, its the go to tool. I’ve got one hanging on the tool rack and in my tool box.
I have a metric adjustable wrench for working on these foreign cars.
I made a portable fuel cell out of a boat fuel tank to hook up to cars with a bad fuel pump and to aid in fuel system diagnosis.
I was working on my motorcycle this weekend, and since I had my toolbox out, I snapped some pics.
The tool with the red handle is for removing and reassembling the retainer over the hold-down spring on drum brakes. The larger tool has a piece on the handle that is supposed to be used for the same thing, but the red handle tool does it better. The larger tool can also be used to reinstall the return springs on drum brakes, but I’ve never been able to get it to work right, and I usually end up using needle-nose locking pliers instead.
I’d like to think these tools will soon be obsolete if I get a new vehicle that has disc brakes all the way around, but my motorcycle (a 2003 Honda Nighthawk 750) has a rear drum brake too, and I have no plan to get rid of it anytime soon.
Whitey, I could never get that larger tool to work either, I always ended up using a visegrip on the spring. I still have two vehicles with rear drum brakes, but I have never worn out the shoes on rear drum/front disk systems, even with 300k+ miles.
I bought those tools sometime around 1997 when my grandmother sold me her 1984 Mercury Marquis. The drum brakes on it were so worn that the bolts on the shoes had worn grooves into the drums. After that, I never let a set of brake shoes wear out, usually changing them every 100,000 miles or so.
I’ve had that with all drum systems, but never with a disc/drum system. Must be luck.
I once had a set of 7/16 drive sockets that came in a holder with a long handled 7/16 Allen wrench to drive them. The drive opening was hex rather than square.
I threw them out when I got my first socket set and haven’t thought about them in more than 50 years.
When I was growing up, we had a “monkey wrench” that had the Ford insignia on it. My dad claimed that anything on the Model T Ford could be fixed with this wrench. If the engine quit, the wrench was used to hammer on the coil box. I’ve progressed beyond this “one tool fixes all”. I have two tools that I use for all my repairs–a sledge hammer and a propane torch. I either beat the objects to pieces or burn it up.
I’ve got one of those brake tools in my tool chest. It’s broken now but still there. I think the problem you are having putting those brake springs on with it is that you have a heavier duty one. Mine is a cheap one with a smaller diameter shaft that the spring will slide down easier. I hope I never have to do a drum brake job again.
Yeah, maybe if I oiled the part of the tool that the spring hook is supposed to slide across, I’d have better luck. However, the rear drum brakes on my Civic are pretty small, and that particular tool was made to work on larger drum brakes than the ones I have. I’ll probably never use it again. I can, however, foresee using the red handle tool again someday.
got an old saab 3 banger spark plug wrench (which also happened to double as a lug wrench). also have an engine removal tool for the same. it’s commonly known as a shovel.
got an old saab 3 banger spark plug wrench (which also happened to double as a lug wrench). also have an engine removal tool for the same. it’s commonly known as a shovel.