Homemade and modified tool thread

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Dmack

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Keith Seymore. He added several posts to your thread.
 

Ricko1966

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Aaah got it .I was hoping everyone would add something.
 

Keith Seymore

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Yes - I have more than one toolbox!

I keep Dad's stuff separate, in the boxes he always kept it in. Otherwise I'd never be able to find it.

K
 

Turbo4whl

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To be perfectly honest - I don't know what these three are used for:
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In the top picture the flat bar with the notch cut in the end looks like a clutch adjusting tool for a medium duty truck. Below that, the bar with the pins is a spanner wrench, most likely for some older steering boxes' end plug.

The bottom picture looks like torque converter tool. If that is the size of it, to hold the converter from falling out of the trans when it is being moved around.
 

Keith Seymore

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Yes - I have more than one toolbox!

I keep Dad's stuff separate, in the boxes he always kept it in. Otherwise I'd never be able to find it.

K

Funny thing is I know exactly where everything would be two houses ago, but I can't find anything in my current set up.

K
 

Keith Seymore

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In the top picture the flat bar with the notch cut in the end looks like a clutch adjusting tool for a medium duty truck. Below that, the bar with the pins is a spanner wrench, most likely for some older steering boxes' end plug.

The bottom picture looks like torque converter tool. If that is the size of it, to hold the converter from falling out of the trans when it is being moved around.

Good thoughts; thank you.

Clutch adjusting tool makes sense, but probably vintage race car (with HD clutch) rather than medium duty truck.

I may have led you astray on the bottom photo - it's smaller than the photo would lead you to believe, like maybe 12 inches end to end.

K
 

Keith Seymore

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The bottom picture looks like torque converter tool. If that is the size of it, to hold the converter from falling out of the trans when it is being moved around.

Dad always raced 4 speeds back in the day, so I wonder if it was for some similar use but not for an auto trans.

K
 

idahovette

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When I sold my shop downtown, we boxed everything up for the move. Didn't get the new shop built for almost a year and then started opening boxes and putting everything in place. Old building 40x50x 14' tall--new building 30x32x12' tall,..didn't pan out real well. Not all got put in place so now every time I open a box it's Christmas again!!!! Then I try to find room. Luckily I have a 5 bay storage with my 4 cars in and one bay for "excess", plus my enclosed (26') and my sons enclosed(24') for backup. Still can't find everything!!!!!!
 

Galane

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Left to right.

Fancy bolt ground down to 3/8" square for turning sockets in really tight places, often with the socket cut short on a lathe. Has seen plenty of use since the initial job it was made for.

Socket turned down to fit exhaust pipe bolts on a 1997 Taurus when I changed the oil pan gasket. Not used on anything since.

1980's Buick V6 Diesel injector nut wrench. Has come in handy without further modification on a lot of impossible to get to with normal tools 5/8" stuff. Somewhere I also have the 1980's Buick V6 Diesel intake runner head bolt access plug 5/8" to 9/16" male to male hex tool. Originally welded a 9/16" nut onto a 9/16" bolt. Twisted off like a wet noodle. So I super glued a 9/16" nut onto the head of a 5/8" bolt then used that as a guide to grind the 5/8" head down to 9/16" then welded a 5/8" nut onto the threaded end. The plugs came out easy, and I've used it a few times on threaded plugs on other things. The car's owner had head gaskets replaced but the numpty that changed them didn't get the heads quite tight enough and one injector nut was a tad loose, causing a little leak and a knock and steam out the exhaust. Those tools were done in the 1980's.

Don't recall what the 7/8" wrench was bent up for, but it does get pressed into use on occasion and IIRC has been 'torch modified' more than once.

The last item, I have no idea for what I needed that size socket with two little nubs on the end, but I'm sure it was important because I gave it a spritz of gold paint.

There have been many others over the years, usually crafted out of various bits and bobs of bolts, nuts, and pieces of metal. Mostly modified again for the next one off need and eventually either scrapped or made a permanent part of something. C10MixMaster's transmission tools are pure luxury compared to what I've used on automatic clutch packs. A curved washer off a Mustang II lower arm strut bushing, a length of 1/2" threaded rod and two nuts, a piece of flat metal with a hole in the middle and both halves of a slightly flattened old crankshaft bearing. Hold the rod in the bench vise, assemble everything onto it with the bearing halves adjusted for access if it's an inside snap ring, turn top nut until things are loose enough to get the rings out.

Similar tale with a GM steering wheel lock plate compressor. Cut hole in middle of thick enough flat steel, heat and bend ends down. Make the ends just the right height to where the nut will screw on a bit over one turn so when it's run down to compress the spring there's enough room to get a couple of picks in at the ring. Probably my most used homemade tool.

If'n you don't know, there's a lot of interchangeable parts between 1980's GM and MoPar steering columns. The four mounting bolt holes on the bottom are the same. If you don't care about having a steering lock you can toss the plate and a GM wheel and horn contact ring fit right onto a MoPar column. Did that in a 1941 Hudson pickup hotrod with a 1985 Cimarron wheel on a mid 80's MoPar RWD (IIRC New Yorker) column and used a Chevette column mount to attach it to the MoPar pedal and brake booster support. No idea *why* I'd kept that Chevette steering column for so long but it finally got to go buh-bye after donating the mount that was on it. The reason for the Cimarron wheel was because it was an inch less diameter and a lot flatter, very important in a 1941 Hudson pickup cab that is just the front half of a sedan when they should have been lopping the back ends off coupes or broughams. (But that's how all the car chassis 1930's and 1940's pickups were done, so Hudson did it too.)

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HotRodPC

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home made 4l60e / 700R4 spring compressors

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These I've made similar. Those will also fit Th350 and the low/reverse piston at the back of the case.
 

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