I'm a newbie and am looking to build up a latebay friendly tool kit and would like your advice on tools like trolley jacks, socket sets and any tools I might particularly useful to keep the bus on the road. I've seen the roadside toolkit thread and that was useful and am hoping that you can steer me the right way here.
You can't have too many metric spanners, screwdrivers, pliers, cutters etc. As well as a socket set get a good breaker bar and a can of Plus Gas as you'll find plenty of hard-to-undo nuts and bolts. Tall trolley jack and tall axle stands are a must. An impact driver will be useful too. I find endless uses for a big far hammer too!
A decent jack, as already mentioned. Not a little Argos/Halfwords £20 one - a high lift one with a big saddle. A multi Meter will help diagnose many electrical problems. Spanners, sockets and screwdrivers as already mentioned.
One of those aerial things with a magnet in the end or little grippy things for picking things up in the engine bay in a awkward place .only a couple of quid
Done that. Last 3 techenders used 1 socket, polished it then put it away. But feels great to own and better to look at than anything you see on telly (except perhaps some programmes on quest chanel or The detectorists)
Hammers. Screwdrivers. Pry bar. Wire brushes. 46mm socket on 3/4 " drive breaker bar for rear axles. Torque Meister for flywheel if you change the rear oil seal or build engine. Big torque wrench for 15 to 90 ft lb. Smaller torque wrench for little things like sump nuts. Feeler gauges. Decent timing light. Compression tester. Big lumps of wood. Ramps for safer working than axle stands. Multimeter with rev counter or timing light with built in counter. bits of rope and string for tying things up. Fuel pipe/ brake hose clamp. Proper crimp tool for crimp connectors. Soldering iron and solder . Shrink wrap insulation. MIG welder and gas and wire and PPE. Angle grinder with cutting and flap discs. Bits of metal bar to act as drifts. Halfords good Professional sockets.. Cheap deep sockets to use as sacrificial tools for driving bushes and pins into or out of places. Halfords professional 1/2" drive hex keys for door hinges. 12 point bit for CV joints Grease gun. Ball joint splitters big and little. More than one jack. Big jack eg Halfords high lift 4x4 jack. Little bottle jacks for pushing and lifting.
what if I want to get a brake pipe off or a bleed nipple...ow'er... mechanical knowledge is much better than shiny spanners...
Save yourself some time and get John Muir's book How to Keep Your Volkswagen Alive. Get his recommended toolkit (I have the intermediate one), it's surprisingly compact but has everything you will need. I did this & emptied out about 30kg of unnecessary bits n bobs! The book is bloomin good too Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
