Talk Morgan Forums Community Welcome Forum Newbie -- tools?

Luddite, given that this set is likely to exceed the value of my car I reckon it's beyond my paygrade,

Adam ... wherever you are 1/4" 3/8" 1/2" and (if you play with big toys) 3/4" are the standard ratchet fitting sizes ... it's a historical thing and now it's in place would be a nightmare to change ... one of those oddities that has absolutely no impact on anything as long as everyone keeps doing it .... you just use your metric or imperial sockets without giving the little square bit a second thought 🙂

K

Adam, a bit of a long story cut short, a couple of friends and I met up with an American McLaren owner some years back, we travelled in company from Ft Willliam down to Oban where we stayed the night, I took quite a few pics of his F1 and my old +8 together in the hotel car park at Oban... (-:

Hello Adam,

Wrenches, the „drive“ is allways inch. So there are small ones 1/4“, middle 3/8, bigger and in the past most common 1/2“.

For VERY big cars, lorries and so on there are bigger toys (3/4 and 1“) available. If you have wheels with a centernut there is the question: with ears or with flanges.

For both you find nice tools at MWS wheels, the manufacturer of them. For the flanged style I use the flat spanner and a big bis tube to open them and a brass tool and a THOR deadblow to fit them.

Greets René

Thank you Image, it seems my uneducated choice of going with the 3/4 + 3/8 set has landed me just either side of the perhaps more sensible 1/2, but maybe my 3/4 will give me cred with proper mechanics (until i have to actually do something of course...)

Luddite, that must have been amazing -- seeing perhaps the greatest sports car of all time in the flesh. I very much doubt there are many F1s hanging about in hotel car parks these days!

Many thanks René -- I have the two-ear spinners on mine (although I rather fancy those bronze-colored hex thingies....) and I'm a bit tempted to get one of those wooden cut-out jobs that you slip over the spinner and whack away on. But since my car is currently parked outside on soft dirt I don't have a safe way to lift it to get the wheels off -- yet!

A decent 3/8" will do just about anything you need ... and if you sometimes have something serious to tighten or undo then with the 3/4" you won't have to ask it twice!! 🙂

You can get a 1/4" set as a stand-alone very cheaply ... get one that has the 'screwdriver' handle as well as the ratchet ... the 1/4" is really useful for tight spots and those smaller things that don't need armfuls of tightness.

K

Just an afterthought, but collect a set of drive-size adaptors (1/2' -1/4" etc ect) every size both adapting up and adapting down .... can be a real lifesaver.

The combo in the pic is the only way I can tighten the central two bottom exhaust flange nuts on the MG racer without removing the whole inlet

3/8" ratchet

3/8" extension

3/8" to 1/4" converter

1'4" extension

1/4" UJ

Socket

You need the 1/4" stuff for the really tight access ... but the 3/8" ratchet to get enough tightening onto it .... odd but saves piles of work.




K

Many thanks Image -- that's quite a contraption you've constructed there! Having purchased a combined 3/4 & 3/8 set off Amazon, and subsequently purchasing a 1/2 sparkplug socket (not having realized at the time of purchase of the sparkplug socket (i) that there are different sizes of ratchets and (ii) that my Amazon set actually included a sparkplug socket, we live and learn...), I then purchased a 3/4-to-1/2 adaptor to be able to use the 1/2 sparkplug socket. Based on your advice above, I reckon a 3/4-to-3/8 adaptor would be well worth the price of admission!