This one is admittedly not totally engine related, but can definitely apply. Sometimes thinking outside the box and re-purposing a tool can be a great time and frustration saver. I came up with this one while doing brakes on the shop truck. After putting a steel plate and…
Jake Sampson Sampson Racing Engines Inver Grove Heights, MN
I made these lift chains for the 3 most common sizes with nuts to keep them together. I welded the T-handle to the top of the bolts to speed up installation. Because of their low cost, I have them stored where ever I might need…
Randy Torvinen Torvinen's Machine Shop Menahga, MN
When you need to shorten or chamfer a bolt, it can be difficult to mount it in a lathe Chuck without boogering up the threads. An easy solution to this problem is to take a nut of the same size and pitch as your bolt and make a…
Ben Hoitink BES Racing Engines Guilford, IN
Removing stubborn open dowels is easy with a spiral bolt extractor. Just give it a light tap, twist and gently pull up. The force is evenly distributed all the way around and most of the time, the dowel can be reused. Dave Matton D and D Auto…
Dave Matton D and D Auto Machine Bloomington, MN
To all the fast and furious, turbo charged, side stepping clutch crowd, this one’s for you. Many Japanese flywheels are step cut. Often times when a clutch blows up, by the time you surface the face, the step is gone. To keep the factory depth…
Henry Satterfield Satterfields Machine Shop, LLC. Cayce. SC
When we have stubborn dowels in flywheels we have come up with a few tricks for pulling them. The best trick we came up with was to put the flywheel in the press to hold it stationary. Now, every hit to engage the sleeve on to the…
Brad Luck Weaver Auto Parts Sauk City, WI
After I read the article about the 12-bolt rear end in the last issue, I wanter to share a solution to easily set pinion depth, without the hassle of pressing the bearings on and off. When rebuilding integral carrier type differential such as the GM…
Lee Johnson Pro Performance Phoenix, AZ
I used to struggle with a 30-ton press and heat to remove CV-axles from spindles, when replacing wheel bearings. I learned that a coating of penetrating oil and an air hammer with a blunt tip can be used to easily drive the axle from the spindle. I hold…
Gary Sloat Auto Supply of Stuart Stuart,FL
Sometimes when machining and repairing different things, it is necessary to remove helicoil inserts that have been previously installed. Without any knowledge of how to do this can make a simple repair seem like a complete disaster. From my experience, helicoil inserts are not really particularly difficult to…
Ben Hoitink Hughes Engines, Inc Washington, IL
Instead of using Easy Outs for removing broken bolts and studs, I use a cut nail. It is tapered, and has enough carbon to be hard enough to grab the bolt. It’s square shape makes it easy to use a wrench to remove. I’ve used these…
Bruce Lizzotte Lake Park Speed and Machine Lake Park, FL