Nissan 370Z Forum - View Single Post

axio · 05-01-2009, 01:53 AM

What wstar said is great. Very thorough. As for your Haynes manual, I'd personally toss that. The Haynes and Chilton manuals aren't that good, IMO. It might cost a bit more -- ok it costs a few times more -- for the factory service manuals for the cars you'll be working on, but that's probably the best way. On my Prelude, I had a Chilton's manual which was complete garbage. Went out and ordered the factory Honda manual and wow, the difference is night and day. You can literally do anything by following the factory manual.

As wstar and Josh have said already, the tool collection gets built up over the years and and is mainly built from necessity.

I'm an accounting manager at a venture capital firm. My dad is a pharmacist. I didn't start working on cars until the end of college when my friends were into fixing up Hondas. I knew absolutely nothing about working on cars at all. But by looking through message board DIY write-ups and by looking through the factory service manual, I basically learned everything I know. I can do timing belt jobs, water pump replacements, valve adjustments, replacing camshafts, oil pans, etc. So honestly, just take your time when you while learning to work on a new part of the car. Once you get up in there and see how things work, you'll figure it out in no time.

Some things I'd like to point out are that torque wrenches can be your best friend. Until you get a good enough feel for how tight most bolts should be, just look up the torque spec and use the torque wrench for the final tightening step. Get a good quality one. Husky and Craftsman ones are definitely good enough, although expect to spend in the $60-$70 range for these.

A good jack is your friend. Those small floor jacks are great for just changing tires or working on brakes, but when you need to really get underneath a car, nothing beats those low-profile racing jacks. But when you buy these, look up the specs. Make sure the maximum height is pretty tall. Some cheaper makers only get them up to the 14" range. And ALWAYS USE JACKSTANDS. It would suck to end your life underneath your car cuz you wanted to change the oil or something like that.

Can't go wrong with Husky and Craftsman tools. Obviously they're at Home Depot and Sears, respectively. For the Craftsman tools, if you're building up your tool collection and you have time, just buy them when they're on sale. They tend to go on sale quite often, so if there's a decent wrench set, ratcheting wrench set, or socket set, go ahead and pick em up on sale cuz you'll be needing them anyways.

Get 3/8" tools. You'll use them a lot. But for heavier-duty stuff, you really do need 1/2" drive.

To save some money on tools, there's nothing wrong with buying the Pittsburg Professional pliers from Harbor Freight. They'll work fine. Same with screw-drivers, etc. I've even heard their Pittsburg line of wrenches and sockets are actually pretty decent, but I can only comment on their black chrome vanadium impact sockets. Those are actually quite decent and I use them for the 1/2" drive sockets. For ratchets, I do like using Craftsman and Husky ones as I believe their quality is good, and the distance between each racheting-click is pretty small, especially on the Husky micro-click ones, although I haven't seen one in-store in a while. I wouldn't go cheap on ratchets.

For things like bleeding brakes, you can look up some kits online. The kind at the local Kragen sucks. You're gonna want something like those Flo-Master garden sprayers, but that have been adapted to brake-bleeding instead. Just make sure your gaskets are good though -- mine has started to not sit well after 7 years and it leaks fluid all over the place haha

Gojo is your friend for cleaning up. You can find it at Home Depot, Kragen and occassionally Costco. Speaking of Costco, you can find some decent low-profile racing jacks there as well. I've heard bad things about the Craftsman ones, such as the oil seals going after a year, but i'm sure it's just the luck of the draw.

Get a set of Mechanix gloves. You can find em at Kragen. I don't use em when I don't need to as I like to have the dexterity of being glove-less, but when you're working in a tight area wrenching away, it does help to prevent some knicks and cuts.

Air tools are great. When you're looking at an air compressor, don't just look at the maximum PSI (150 psi shoudl be fine), but look at the SCFM (Standard Cubic Feet per Minute) rating. This is the real "power number". The higher the better to run air tools. You can check what the impact gun or air ratchet's requirements are before you buy the tool and the compressor. The smaller compressors are more for contractors/woodworkers (woodworking is another hobby of mine...) and are definitely not suitable for powering an impact gun. Be carefuly using an impact on lugs though if you have nice rims. And to be honest, I only use the impact to loosen, not to tighten, since I like to do the torqueing with a torque wrench. I'm afraid the impact gun will just overtighten whatever it is i'm using it on.

Good luck!

05-01-2009, 01:53 AM	#7 (permalink)
axio Enthusiast Member Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: SF Bay Area, CA Posts: 271 Drives: '09 370Z Rep Power: 16	What wstar said is great. Very thorough. As for your Haynes manual, I'd personally toss that. The Haynes and Chilton manuals aren't that good, IMO. It might cost a bit more -- ok it costs a few times more -- for the factory service manuals for the cars you'll be working on, but that's probably the best way. On my Prelude, I had a Chilton's manual which was complete garbage. Went out and ordered the factory Honda manual and wow, the difference is night and day. You can literally do anything by following the factory manual. As wstar and Josh have said already, the tool collection gets built up over the years and and is mainly built from necessity. I'm an accounting manager at a venture capital firm. My dad is a pharmacist. I didn't start working on cars until the end of college when my friends were into fixing up Hondas. I knew absolutely nothing about working on cars at all. But by looking through message board DIY write-ups and by looking through the factory service manual, I basically learned everything I know. I can do timing belt jobs, water pump replacements, valve adjustments, replacing camshafts, oil pans, etc. So honestly, just take your time when you while learning to work on a new part of the car. Once you get up in there and see how things work, you'll figure it out in no time. Some things I'd like to point out are that torque wrenches can be your best friend. Until you get a good enough feel for how tight most bolts should be, just look up the torque spec and use the torque wrench for the final tightening step. Get a good quality one. Husky and Craftsman ones are definitely good enough, although expect to spend in the $60-$70 range for these. A good jack is your friend. Those small floor jacks are great for just changing tires or working on brakes, but when you need to really get underneath a car, nothing beats those low-profile racing jacks. But when you buy these, look up the specs. Make sure the maximum height is pretty tall. Some cheaper makers only get them up to the 14" range. And ALWAYS USE JACKSTANDS. It would suck to end your life underneath your car cuz you wanted to change the oil or something like that. Can't go wrong with Husky and Craftsman tools. Obviously they're at Home Depot and Sears, respectively. For the Craftsman tools, if you're building up your tool collection and you have time, just buy them when they're on sale. They tend to go on sale quite often, so if there's a decent wrench set, ratcheting wrench set, or socket set, go ahead and pick em up on sale cuz you'll be needing them anyways. Get 3/8" tools. You'll use them a lot. But for heavier-duty stuff, you really do need 1/2" drive. To save some money on tools, there's nothing wrong with buying the Pittsburg Professional pliers from Harbor Freight. They'll work fine. Same with screw-drivers, etc. I've even heard their Pittsburg line of wrenches and sockets are actually pretty decent, but I can only comment on their black chrome vanadium impact sockets. Those are actually quite decent and I use them for the 1/2" drive sockets. For ratchets, I do like using Craftsman and Husky ones as I believe their quality is good, and the distance between each racheting-click is pretty small, especially on the Husky micro-click ones, although I haven't seen one in-store in a while. I wouldn't go cheap on ratchets. For things like bleeding brakes, you can look up some kits online. The kind at the local Kragen sucks. You're gonna want something like those Flo-Master garden sprayers, but that have been adapted to brake-bleeding instead. Just make sure your gaskets are good though -- mine has started to not sit well after 7 years and it leaks fluid all over the place haha Gojo is your friend for cleaning up. You can find it at Home Depot, Kragen and occassionally Costco. Speaking of Costco, you can find some decent low-profile racing jacks there as well. I've heard bad things about the Craftsman ones, such as the oil seals going after a year, but i'm sure it's just the luck of the draw. Get a set of Mechanix gloves. You can find em at Kragen. I don't use em when I don't need to as I like to have the dexterity of being glove-less, but when you're working in a tight area wrenching away, it does help to prevent some knicks and cuts. Air tools are great. When you're looking at an air compressor, don't just look at the maximum PSI (150 psi shoudl be fine), but look at the SCFM (Standard Cubic Feet per Minute) rating. This is the real "power number". The higher the better to run air tools. You can check what the impact gun or air ratchet's requirements are before you buy the tool and the compressor. The smaller compressors are more for contractors/woodworkers (woodworking is another hobby of mine...) and are definitely not suitable for powering an impact gun. Be carefuly using an impact on lugs though if you have nice rims. And to be honest, I only use the impact to loosen, not to tighten, since I like to do the torqueing with a torque wrench. I'm afraid the impact gun will just overtighten whatever it is i'm using it on. Good luck! Last edited by axio; 05-01-2009 at 02:35 AM.