strangest tools in your box?

noisycricket wrote:

DirtyBird222 wrote: Umm I have these "E" sockets followed by numbers. Pretty damn odd, no one I know really knows what they are for.

Inverted Torx. Theoretically common on GM, but there's lots of them on Audis for some godforsaken reason. There are actually three or four different flavors of inverted Torx, by the way. Toyota has one, though I've never needed it before. I have a set, but I don't use it all that much. Most common thing was for the rear wheel cylinders on 80's/early 90's J-bodies and other small GM front drives. For some of them you couldn't get a socket on them. I knew someone with an E8 *box wrench*, but I always removed them by hitting with an air chisel and replacement with a real bolt :)

Is that the same ones used for early Chrysler 2.2 heads? ive got a set of those suckers I used to use allot for changing K-car heads... i made allot of money on the side changing those head gaskets in the early 90's, theyd blow out like clockwork and id leave notes on peoples cars with my phone number, call me when it hits 60k and your head gasket blows, will fix fast and cheap...

I never knew that castle nut tool existed...I could have used one over the years.

I have a old dentist's mirror that comes in handy in tight spaces.

I use a 5-way painter's helper that I use for just about everything.

I have a wooden hand crank drill and a sharpening stone that is in a tin full of tooling or mineral oil from my grandpa from when he was under attack here at pearl harbor. Never really asked him why he needed a hand crank drill or a sharpening stone in 100 year old oil, lol.

Maybe he was sharpening arrowheads?

I have a set of 3 12 point bits 8/10/12mm which are quite useful on 1970's German stuff, like Pinto 2.0 head bolts and 914 CV joint bolts. I've also used them on Audi CV's. Pretty much that's the only place I've seen that type of bolt head. They are also called 'triple squares'.

used tripple squares to take apart my wolfsberg's wheels. and take off the cv joints of an 88 golf. and the cv joins of the 944. weirdest tool though is a wheel bolt and two wheel nuts all locked together with the end shaved so that a humongous wrench can fit on, we used it to take off the transmission fluid plug on the 88 golf.

XZN I think the triple-quares are called.

The trans bolts on my Golf are all triple-square, as well as of course the CVs.

I had to do a transmission in an A8. Audi used Torx, inverted Torx, triple-square, and regular ol' internal hex bolts. There was a kind of rhyme to the reason, like only things that attached to the structure of the car were internal hex, while Torx were used on things that normally don't have to come apart, or something like that.

I was able to see the vision that the designers had when they determined what kind of bolts to use, and it was at that point I realized that I was just about insane. Made it easy to put back together, though.

any one else keep a hockey puck in their tool box?

they make great jack pads

I have a couple drawers of custom or homemade tools Including an exhaust nut wrench for early BMW bikes, like the one pictured above/ For the same bike, a medium depth 15 mm socket for the connecting rod bolts.

But the strangest? Ond one I hope an pray I NEVER use?

My 12 gauge pistol ! Made from a plastic flare gun! I know it will kill one one end and maim on the other! A true "one use wonder!"

Heaven help what ever is on the wrong side of it!

SoloSonett wrote: My 12 gauge pistol ! Made from a plastic flare gun! I know it will kill one one end and maim on the other! A true "one use wonder!" Heaven help what ever is on the wrong side of it!

That's disturbing.

Speaking of strange uses for firearms, I discovered recently, with the help of my boss - who has a lot more spent ammo lying around than I do - that your various sizes of handgun shell casings make for great hole punches when making a custom gasket. So, now he and I both stock our boxes with .22, .30, .380, .40, .45, 9mm and 10mm brass. (It helps that we're a one minute ride from the city's only firing range.)

jrtech wrote:

SoloSonett wrote: My 12 gauge pistol ! Made from a plastic flare gun! I know it will kill one one end and maim on the other! A true "one use wonder!" Heaven help what ever is on the wrong side of it!

That's disturbing.

Intriguingly so...

Clem