looking to buy tools for working on my car

caliper refurb and timing belt kit, any suggestions best place to get reasonably priced tools for a diy'er

 

I'd take a look in NSR on here if you want tools (sorry, I had to).

On a serious note, the Halfords professional range is pretty reasonable for the money.

 

I'd second the Halfords Pro Range as I bought the 200 Piece set and it's great.

 

Draper professional or as mentioned halfords professional are good for the money. I have a mix of both and find halford good value and life time guarantee(keep receipt just in case). Have a few sets of their ratchet spanners,1/4 socket,2x 3/8 and 1x 1/2" socket sets. They do a large set with all in,but i wanted some for work use hence getting separate sets instead of the one large all in. Look for offers/sales and some money to be saved

 

thinking about these spanners , any idea if they cover the sizes i would need
http://www.halfords.com/motoring-tra...et-spanner-set

which torque wrenches should i get to cver the full range ?

i dont want to spend to much because they wont get used a lot really

 

looks like i need a 0-50lbs torque wrench, cant find one on the net

 

Halfords will have the torque wrench you need, they sell a good quality one (made by Norbar) under their Halfords name. The ratchet spanners, I've actually had a set for years and they've outlasted my MAC ratchet spanners. Not sure whether they are the same quality still but I've been more than impressed with them.

If you're doing the cambelt, you'll want a small socket set too for the lower cam cover bolts. You'll also need a large breaker bar to undo the crank pulley bolt. And be very careful with the N/S cam pulleys as you do the change, due to their position on cam.

You're going to need a fair bit of outlay for the jobs you want to do. I'd say you'll need breaker bar & socket for the crank, 1/2" or 3/8" socket set for aux belt tensioner and alternator etc, 3/8 or 1/4" socket set for the smaller bolts, 10mm's around covers and radiator shrouds. You'll also need something to hold the N/S cam pulleys, I use two hex sockets on bars linked together. The socket sets will be more important for the jobs you're doing rather than the ratchet spanners. For the calliper refurb consider if they're really bad you'll need a compressor to push the pistons out, good grips and lots of patience.

 

I've got tools from halfords.. Machine mart and amazon.. Rather than get a ratchet set I went the other way I got them all individually.. I got sockets on rails along with male and female torx bits and the 3 sizes of ratchets.. That way you only buy what you need immediately and then get what you can as time goes by.. Also worth their weight are ratchet spanners.. Yes they are expensive but well worth it.. Thinking about it now I got a full range (metric and imperial) of spanners from Argos all in one set.. Had them a few years now.. You just need to have a look around at the usual places.. If you don't need the tools straight away then shop online.. You certainly don't need to rush out and buy everything right now.

 

Those ratchet spanners certainly make life easier for jobs where you can't fit a socket wrench in. Although you'll still want a combi-spanner set as well because the you won't be able to put as much torque on the ring end of those ratchet spanners.

 

you said you didn't want to spend too much money - in that case you don't need the ratchet spanners, they're a bit of a luxury item and the engineering world managed fine without them for many years. Halfords professional are perfect for DIY. If you get a 1/2 drive socket set I'd also pick up a halfords breaker bar, probably the 18" one - very useful bit of kit.

 

Halfords tools are ****e, i have 4 ratchets and about 8 sockets that have broke on me, their warrenty is also worth **** all as it dosent cover moving parts, which is complete bullsh1t considering a ratchet is mostly a moving part. Youd do better to get an account with a mac man, get descent tools with a descent warrenty and pay weekly.

 

this is the youtube video im using for doing the timing belt. at the start it lists every tool needed to do the job so probably will just buy the bits i need , i do have some tools allready an old socket set and a small new stanley socket set

 

SIOC

 

I used the same video to do my timing belt. I got my torque wrench from Machine Mart. Done the job.

 

In the video @ 11:30 you'll see why you need the breaker bar. I didn't own one when I did mine so I had a 5 foot scaffold pole on a T bar, way too bendy to get any true torque, but reckon the breaker bar would work fine.

 

SIOC,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

hahahahaha

 

what is SIOC

 

its a facebook group full of tools lol

well alot anyway, some of the guys on there are ok

 

You dont really need a torque wrench to do the timing belt, you can get away with just doing the crank pulley bolt up tight with a 22mm socket and a breaker bar. It helps to put the car into 5th gear and have someone stand on the brakes to aid in loosening and tightening the crank pulley bolt.