On Sat, 06 Nov 2010 15:19:26 GMT, notbob wrote:

On 2010-11-06, wrote:

And I've worked on British, German, French, Italian, American,
Russian,French, Korean, Mexican, Canadian, as well as a few other,
vehicles.

I'm not seeing Japanese in there. I cut my teeth on Japanese
motorcycles in the early 70s and gar-own-damn-tee you 12mm is as
common a fastener size on those things as teriyaki sauce on salmon.
So much so, I wondered if it was possible to have 12 and 13mm open end
wrench heads grafted on my fingertips.


Forgot the biggest one - 10 years as Toyota mservice manager, and
another several as Toyota mechanic. As service manager, I was a
WORKING service manager for most of the time - on the bench about half
time.
either. Mabee brake bleeder screws.....

That sounds strangely familiar

And Chinese?????? a 9mm wrench might fit something that was SUPPOSED
to be either 8 or 10.

Howzabout them Puchs and CZs? Weird sizes on those babies. These
later global-parts cars are also a hoot. No telling what you'll find
on them.

True Story:

I worked on Puch "twingle" (Allstate 250), with 4 square-head head
bolts. I'd borrowed a gorgeous set of Snap-On combo wrenches from a
trusting acquaintance. I discovered I could only get to the square
10mm bolt heads, buried deep between the cooling fins, by using the
open-end wrench end-wise. IOW, the open-end slipped over the sqr head
from the top, the wrench shaft sticking straight out along the same
center axis as the bolt shaft. I then used an adjustable wrench
(Crescent) to grab the 10mm wrench shaft at a 90deg angle to turn the
open-end wrench. Got the picture?

I broke 3 bolts loose no problem. The 4th was a bit more stubborn. I
kept at it, putting more and more torque on the little 10mm wrench.
When the last bolt finally broke loose, I was relieved, but then
immediately horrified to discover the Snap-On 10mm wrench shaft was
now permenently twisted 45deg from its open-end wrench head. Yikes!
This was a borrowed $300+ wrench set. How could I explain it?

I did the repair and quickly reassembled the engine. As I retorqued
the head bolts back down, I put enough pressure on each bolt to
attempt re-twisting the 10mm wrench shaft back to its original
straight form. When I finished, it appeared to have worked, as
planned. The wrench shaft appeared perfectly aligned, again, and
no worse for wear. I even told my buddy the whole bizarre story and
told him if he could identify which wrench I'd deformed and then
reformed, I would replace it. He couldn't!

Point of story? That's the difference between quality tools and
junk. Pay the $$$ for quality. You'll never regret it.

nb