I’ve had this thread idea for a while now not sure if you guys will find it interesting but here goes!
As a intrepid DIY’er (And there are many such types on here) I invest alot of time on expanding my home tools range and sometimes you buy a tool that earns it’s keep within a few days of saving time & headaches. I thought it might be a good idea for like minded folks to share their best buys & what they might recommend a member to consider in their toolbox.
Here are a few brief thread starters of mine:
Top of the list is a plain old Oil extractor. Pick one with a decent capacity so you don’t have to worry about it overflowing. This one comes with lots of tubes for use on brakes etc too. (Not all pictured) It is VERY handy to have around and makes Oil changes an absolute doddle plus this can actually pull more oil in most cases than just dropping a sump plug. Just recently I discovered someone had rounded the drain plug in the gearbox pan of my S280. No Problem! Just slide the thinner tube down the dipstick and draw the old ATF out where before I would have had to drop the pan and get an ATF shower.
Second is these nifty Sockets linked below. They are nice thin walled sockets, 6 pointed but with little gripping slots in them to deal with old rusty rounded bolts. And they work an absolute treat – never fail to undo even the oldest crustiest bolts without issue where my regular sockets (Even 6 point impacts) wouldn’t touch em. And they have the odd sizes of 16 + 18mm that MB now employ on many models such as bellhousing or brake calliper bolts.
http://www.sealey.co.uk/PLPageBuilder.asp?id=20&method=mViewProduct&productid=19840
Gearless ratchets – brilliant things. Every mm of movement is translated into bolt action. So working in confined areas like bellhousings where you are waiting on the measly 1x or 2x clicks you can muster from a conventional ratchet these are much faster and more accurate. A must have really!
Little vice / mole grips: These are get out of jail items. Things like 30 year old rusted brake nuts that will not shift or round clean off with the proper spanner can be rescued with these. Usually at 1am before work the next day in my case. USA made are best!
I have a habit of buying big Ebay generic kits...... (more on that later) this is one such item. It’s a universal bush puller set and as the name suggests there is a size for just about any situation and the cost was covered in the first job VS buying a special tool that would only suit one joint. It also doubles as the perfect set of dies for my hydraulic press.
Ideas / thoughts welcome! What tools do you guys swear by? (Or reduce swearing with!)
As a intrepid DIY’er (And there are many such types on here) I invest alot of time on expanding my home tools range and sometimes you buy a tool that earns it’s keep within a few days of saving time & headaches. I thought it might be a good idea for like minded folks to share their best buys & what they might recommend a member to consider in their toolbox.
Here are a few brief thread starters of mine:
Top of the list is a plain old Oil extractor. Pick one with a decent capacity so you don’t have to worry about it overflowing. This one comes with lots of tubes for use on brakes etc too. (Not all pictured) It is VERY handy to have around and makes Oil changes an absolute doddle plus this can actually pull more oil in most cases than just dropping a sump plug. Just recently I discovered someone had rounded the drain plug in the gearbox pan of my S280. No Problem! Just slide the thinner tube down the dipstick and draw the old ATF out where before I would have had to drop the pan and get an ATF shower.
Second is these nifty Sockets linked below. They are nice thin walled sockets, 6 pointed but with little gripping slots in them to deal with old rusty rounded bolts. And they work an absolute treat – never fail to undo even the oldest crustiest bolts without issue where my regular sockets (Even 6 point impacts) wouldn’t touch em. And they have the odd sizes of 16 + 18mm that MB now employ on many models such as bellhousing or brake calliper bolts.
http://www.sealey.co.uk/PLPageBuilder.asp?id=20&method=mViewProduct&productid=19840
Gearless ratchets – brilliant things. Every mm of movement is translated into bolt action. So working in confined areas like bellhousings where you are waiting on the measly 1x or 2x clicks you can muster from a conventional ratchet these are much faster and more accurate. A must have really!
Little vice / mole grips: These are get out of jail items. Things like 30 year old rusted brake nuts that will not shift or round clean off with the proper spanner can be rescued with these. Usually at 1am before work the next day in my case. USA made are best!
I have a habit of buying big Ebay generic kits...... (more on that later) this is one such item. It’s a universal bush puller set and as the name suggests there is a size for just about any situation and the cost was covered in the first job VS buying a special tool that would only suit one joint. It also doubles as the perfect set of dies for my hydraulic press.
Ideas / thoughts welcome! What tools do you guys swear by? (Or reduce swearing with!)
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I’d love one of those but unfortunately It’ll be a year or two yet until I get my own. Partly because I’ll need to extend a section of my garage with a ceiling tall enough for a Benz at the top of a 2 poster. In the interim I recently got a pair of nifty ramps from Germany. Very well priced at £86 including express delivery to Ireland! Bottle jacks included. They came in very handy for my recent w140 transmission extraction. Plenty of space to work under it and raising / lowering the car is a doodle. It’s also way more stable having the car sitting on it’s tyres rather than teetering that high on jack stands. 
