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Unique Triumph Tools....most, homemade.

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How many of you have resorted to modifying a tool for use on your Triumph? I, for one, have a whole drawer full of specialty tools that I have made, many of which will only be used once, I hope! Or am I the only LBC nut that does this. Included in this photo are store-bought tools, such as the little gizmo for removing the valves in your overdrive (never want to do that again) and a screwdriver that should only be used on my Stromberg carb, otherwise will ruin the screws. Nuts, indeed.

tools.jpg


Bill
 
Neat. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/yesnod.gif
 
That picture looks like a scene from some horror movie where a demented surgeon rolls out his tray of surgical intruments. Anybody remember Dead Ringers with Jeremy Irons?
 
Hey, watchit! Any blood on those instruments, er, tools, is mine!

Bill
 
And, I happen to rinse those mosquito hemostats off real well before I use them in my office.

Bill
 
That's neat. Having turned wrenches professionally for about eight years, my box has all sorts of special tools, self made or purchased. Some of them I just look at now and wonder what they were for.
 
Modifying tools seems to be part of playing with old cars. Two that come to mind is a flair wrench that I shortened and bent at a right angle to fit the brake connections at the TR3's mc and res can, and a socket that I ground down to a thin wall to fit the mounting bolts on the 3's rear lever shocks. I also have a nice Snap On that I modified by welding it with the battery's positive terminal -- haven't figured out a good purpose for that one, though.
 
To avoid the need for an extra thin walled socket for the bolts holding the rear shocks in a TR3A, I had a machine shop make me 4 tubular lengths about an inch long and I now use bolts that are an inch longer. This way the head of the new longer bolt is out and away from the shock body. Now I can use any 9/16" socket and once every year I tighten them so the shock doesn't bang on every bump in the road.
 
another idea for the levers is to replace them with socket heads so you can get an alan wrench in there no problem.

of course I still need to get the **** original bolts off first... I'm gonna grind down a socket and see if I can get it in there. Someone on the list said that they were able to get a 1/4 drive 9/16 from Craftsman in there (it's a *little* thinner than the bigger drive ones) but mine is still too thick to clear the side of the shock. As soon as I get em out I'm buying socket heads.
 
[ QUOTE ]
another idea for the levers is to replace them with socket heads so you can get an alan wrench in there no problem.

[/ QUOTE ]

Hi Jim,

I did that some time ago and socket headed bolts work fine. I recommend buying longer bolts that have a little bit of a shank on them, so that the threads don't end up inside the shock body or the hole in the bracket. Use washers as spacers if necessary. Use a Dremel cutoff tool or hacksaw to shorten the bolt if you wish. The point is, threads inside the shock body or mounting bracket hole will most likely mill the holes oversize eventually.

[ QUOTE ]
of course I still need to get the **** original bolts off first... I'm gonna grind down a socket and see if I can get it in there. Someone on the list said that they were able to get a 1/4 drive 9/16 from Craftsman in there (it's a *little* thinner than the bigger drive ones) but mine is still too thick to clear the side of the shock. As soon as I get em out I'm buying socket heads.

[/ QUOTE ]

Hey, make it easy on yourself!

Just jam a large, flat-bladed screwdriver between one of the flats on the head of the nut and the body of the shock, then use a wrench/ratchet/whatever to loosen and remove the nut from the back side. I've nearly always been able to get TR shocks off doing this, even with nylocks on the bolt. (The only exception is if the bolt is severely rusted, in which case the Dremel cutoff tool gets the nod).

In fact, because the screwdriver trick works so well is a key reason I changed to socket-headed bolts. Using the flat-bladed-screwdriver method doesn't *tightened* the bolts back up well enough for my tastes.

/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cheers.gif
 
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