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I'm almost there with the purchase of a new to me TR6.

I have a plethora of metric tools/sockets but I'm guessing a 50 year old car is going to be imperial as opposed to metric sizes.

What tools am I going to need for general maintenance. (links to suitable would be good too)

.... and can anyone recommend a good torque wrench, which I guess is a must, just not sure what range of torque I would need.

TIA

Chris 

 

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Hi Chris,

I bought a TR3a after years of metric cars and had the same issues.  I bought a set of combination spanners from Halfords and they are still going strong.  I subsequently bought a socket set from Machine Mart and that is also going strong and I have a Pro Tek 1/2" torque wrench bought from Toolzone which covers up to 150 Ft-lbs.  I usually calibrate this against a very old bendy bar torque wrench before I use it and it always compares well.

A couple of years ago I bought a set of ratchet spanners but I don't find these as much use as the Halfords combination set because the heads are a bit on the large side.

The other item that I bought - again from Halfords - was an impact driver.  Essential for removing things like door hinges.

I find that the quality of the Halfords Professional range is all I need and I couldn't justify going to something like Snap-on much as I appreciate they make quality stuff.

Rgds Ian

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+1 for Halfords Professional range used both metric and imperial sockets, socket sets in the 1/4, 3/8 and 1/2 drives and spanners; ratchet and none ratchet for many years and never managed to break anything. If you do then you just take it back and they replace for free. it's possibly why a lot of professional mechanics have moved over to it when given the cost of Snap On.

Torque wrenches again Halfords a baby, teenager and adult ranges. The baby is useful for the rear hub/drive shaft flange which are studs in to Ali casting and seem to like to strip easily which is a pain to sort.

Most useful extra I've found is a stubby combination imperial set of open/ring spanners they have proved very handy. Other useful items are 1/2 and 3/8 impact sockets for suspension jobs. 

Have had Teng tools and they just don't seem to last too long.

Happy spannering.

Andy

 

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+2 for Halfords Professional range.

As I've posted before, in the commercial vehicle world many of the mechanics have moved onto Halfords professional. Reason is...they break them. They break ALL the preferred makes, Prick tool (Britool), C R A P on (Snap on)...welcome back My little pony censuring algorithm , (Top Dong) King Dick, (and yet the algorithm allows that, it isn't even consistent ) Halfords professional (can't remember the slang for that) whatever the make is, when a bolt or stud HAS to come of and you're in the middle of a shift, preserving the tool is not an option. BUT the Britool, Snap on and King Dick and other premium makes are handled by a franchisee  (van comes Thursday) so break your tool on Friday and you have to wait nearly a week to replace and that's if the van has it on board. ! otherwise it's another week.

On the other hand if you break the Halfords professional before 7PM in the evening (midway through the evening shift,... 24 hour working...the commercial world is ferocious and the manufacturer outlets compete aggressively to outdo other marques outlets) the parts department will despatch a van (they are in full support to keep the mechanics working), a 20 mins round trip to the local Halfords. If they haven't got the individual part in stock they'll break into a complete set of sockets, wrenches, torque wrenches...whatever and rob the required part and replace it into the shops new set via their internal parts delivery service, (probably every 2 days) the customer is not inconvenienced. That counts for a lot, and the same service is offered to a normal retail customer (that's you and me). Why would you want to buy a C R A P on ?

Mick Richards 

Edited by Motorsport Mickey
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And Halfords also supply decent batteries with no quibble replacement if a failure occurs within the guarantee period.  I know because the battery in my Citroen was replaced within minutes of my arrival at the Aylesbury outlet.

Ian Cornish

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When I bought a new suite of A/F tools for my workshop, I shopped around and eventually bought everything from Halfords but only their professional grade called Advanced. Lifetime, no quibble guarantee - you don't even need a receipt. Great value for money. The essentials are: screwdrivers, socket set and combination spanners. Plus a grease gun. After that buy special tools when you need them e.g. brake adjuster.

Mick

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Hi Chris,

 regarding torque wrenches - the two most common sizes on the TR are 105lbft for cylinder head nuts ( TR4) and 16lbft for the TRainling arm hub stud nuts

One will not do both

A large one that does 150lbft ( apprx 200Nm) 1/2" drive

A small one that does   0 - 30lbft   (0 - 40Nm)  1/4" drive

Roger

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Just now, RogerH said:

regarding torque wrenches - the two most common sizes on the TR are 105lbft for cylinder head nuts ( TR4) and 16lbft for the TRainling arm hub stud nuts

One will not do both

You can get digital torque cells like this which will easily cover that range in one go  (16lbft = 21 NM,  106  lbft = 143NM) .   The claimed resolution is  0.1NM  (= 0.08 ftlb)  and you can select imperial or SI units for display. 

wrch.jpg.f0666a9a85019828f1205fc4c660600c.jpg

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Most fastenings on the TR6 are Imperial UNF or rarely UNC. Both require tools measured using the A/F (across flats) terminology.

A quarter drive A/F socket set and 3/8 drive A/F socket set plus combination spanner set from 7/16 to 1 inch will cover most eventualities. There are some fastenings bigger than 1 inch but you will probably have a Metric equivalent.

Unless you are doing a cylinder head, you will probably never need a torque wrench, come on Roger who on earth does anything with the rear hub nuts, except you perhaps !

Depending on the condition of the TR6, you will have more trouble undoing things than torqueing them up.

Jerrry

 

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1 hour ago, RobH said:

You can get digital torque cells like this which will easily cover that range in one go  (16lbft = 21 NM,  106  lbft = 143NM) .   The claimed resolution is  0.1NM  (= 0.08 ftlb)  and you can select imperial or SI units for display. 

wrch.jpg.f0666a9a85019828f1205fc4c660600c.jpg

Nice, but at £44 expensive.  There are plenty of cheap torque wrnches on ebay and it's easy enough to check how accurate they are.

Rgds Ian

PS if you ever get into stripping things down and needing measuring tools, they crop up on ebay all the time - just like I guess mine will when I pop my clogs and the kids won't know what to do with all the junk I've accumulated over the years. :unsure:

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1 hour ago, RogerH said:

Hi Jerry,

 the 6 hub stud nuts come up quite often on here.

I have never torque'd them and rely on my 'feel', although I would not recommend that.

 

Roger

As evidenced by this current thread https://www.tr-register.co.uk/forums/index.php?/topic/79752-stripped-thread/page/2/&tab=comments#comment-758799

Stuart.

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The key spanner sizes are 7/16, 1/2 9/16, 3/14 which you ideally need 2 of in combination ring/open end. Mole grips, side cuttters, pliers and long nose pliers and screwdiver with changeable ends a small and large adjustabe spanner and a multimeter and you have most off what you need to keep in the boot.

A decent socket set and as has been mentioned the Halfords Professional range is worth the money and even if you don't wear out the sockets, when the ratchet fails replace it with one of theirs! Mine only goes in the car if I am going away and the need to do a running repair is more important to aoid messing up a holiday.

A torque wrench is useful. a 3/8 drive one for the lower range and a 1/2 inch  drive one for the heavier torques.  i have a torque adaptor as he hub nuts on the CV jonted drive shafts need 215ftLbs and this was also useful for doing the head studs on the 4 pots in conjunction with a 3 ft breaker bar. So much easier than a regular torque wrentch at 100+ ftlbs.  It depends on how much spannering you intend to do. But these live in your garage.

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The key spanner sizes are 7/16, 1/2 9/16, 3/14 which you ideally need 2 of in combination ring/open end. Mole grips, side cuttters, pliers and long nose pliers and screwdiver with changeable ends a small and large adjustabe spanner and a multimeter and you have most off what you need to keep in the boot.

A decent socket set and as has been mentioned the Halfords Professional range is worth the money and even if you don't wear out the sockets, when the ratchet fails replace it with one of theirs! Mine only goes in the car if I am going away and the need to do a running repair is more important to aoid messing up a holiday.

A torque wrench is useful. a 3/8 drive one for the lower range and a 1/2 inch  drive one for the heavier torques.  i have a torque adaptor as he hub nuts on the CV jonted drive shafts need 215ftLbs and this was also useful for doing the head studs on the 4 pots in conjunction with a 3 ft breaker bar. So much easier than a regular torque wrentch at 100+ ftlbs.  It depends on how much spannering you intend to do. But these live in your garage.  (Lots of mentions of the trailing arm studs stripping their threads, presumably fine threads in alloy are not ideal and it's easy to over tighten them. A different discussion might be as to whether they should have been coarse threads or helicoil type inserts from new, but that's another matter. Triumph have history when it comes to putting fine threads in alloy)

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I got bought a socket set for Christmas a couple of years ago, Halfords professional range and when I came to use the small ratchet for the first time some three months later it jammed. I took it back, receipt in hand, and they refused to replace it. It took an official complaint to the management before they finally gave me a repair kit. 

 

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Thanks to all replies and your recommendations. I Don't intend to do much spnnering as the car I have sourced is a recent full restoration but I do like to babe forearmed.


Sadly Halfords is not an option here in Spain so I must search and buy carefully so I don't get monkey metal spanners off Amazon.es which seems to be full of SilverLine and Buhco

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On 4/3/2022 at 8:02 PM, Motorsport Mickey said:

+2 for Halfords Professional range.

As I've posted before, in the commercial vehicle world many of the mechanics have moved onto Halfords professional. Reason is...they break them. They break ALL the preferred makes, Prick tool (Britool), C R A P on (Snap on)...welcome back My little pony censuring algorithm , (Top Dong) King Dick, (and yet the algorithm allows that, it isn't even consistent ) Halfords professional (can't remember the slang for that) whatever the make is, when a bolt or stud HAS to come of and you're in the middle of a shift, preserving the tool is not an option. BUT the Britool, Snap on and King Dick and other premium makes are handled by a franchisee  (van comes Thursday) so break your tool on Friday and you have to wait nearly a week to replace and that's if the van has it on board. ! otherwise it's another week.

On the other hand if you break the Halfords professional before 7PM in the evening (midway through the evening shift,... 24 hour working...the commercial world is ferocious and the manufacturer outlets compete aggressively to outdo other marques outlets) the parts department will despatch a van (they are in full support to keep the mechanics working), a 20 mins round trip to the local Halfords. If they haven't got the individual part in stock they'll break into a complete set of sockets, wrenches, torque wrenches...whatever and rob the required part and replace it into the shops new set via their internal parts delivery service, (probably every 2 days) the customer is not inconvenienced. That counts for a lot, and the same service is offered to a normal retail customer (that's you and me). Why would you want to buy a C R A P on ?

Mick Richards 

Hi Mick Britool  stuff used to be good   but it seems that their stuff is now made to a price. I still have whitworth/BSF ring and open enders from 70s I used on very large power presses .. not much call for them now though but very good .. What are the main failures, sockets, ratchets or ring spanners ??

cheers

steve

 

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9 hours ago, Nobbysr said:

Hi Mick Britool  stuff used to be good   but it seems that their stuff is now made to a price. I still have whitworth/BSF ring and open enders from 70s I used on very large power presses .. not much call for them now though but very good .. What are the main failures, sockets, ratchets or ring spanners ??

cheers

steve

 

For certain Steve sockets followed by ring spanners. The ratchets get an easier life as any competent mechanic knows if you are putting heavy torque through a fastening NEVER use an intermittent drive attachment like a ratchet, it being the weakest point. As you say next in line would be ring spanners (none ratcheting though) although not as certain as a flat drive socket many mechanics will use them because their wall strength on the "ring" is better than a multipoint socket.

Mick Richards  

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About 62 years ago I bought an Elora socket set - and it has served me well all these years.  Nothing has broken nor has anything worn out.

It would seem that the brand no longer exists.

I have added a few sockets for specific duties, such as removal of spark plugs (longer reach) and of the steering wheel, and in recent years, some metric sockets for the modern cars.

Ian Cornish

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On 4/4/2022 at 8:48 PM, Richmac said:

I got bought a socket set for Christmas a couple of years ago, Halfords professional range and when I came to use the small ratchet for the first time some three months later it jammed. I took it back, receipt in hand, and they refused to replace it. It took an official complaint to the management before they finally gave me a repair kit. 

 

I'm amazed!     I did exactly the same, and although I had been abusing the tiny wrench, the manager gave me another out of a set on display, no questions asked.     

See the webpage on their  "Advanced tools" https://www.halfords.com/halfords-advanced-tools.html?msclkid=47c4cc16b64811ec83c45defe600e31d   and note the line "Simply return the product to your nearest Halfords store and a store colleague will either provide you with a replacement on the spot or order one in for you."

Maybe sometimes junior staff are not up to speed on Halfords' policies.

 

Chris, this benefit of having these tools will not be available to you in Spain, but the quality would.     The cost of shipping a UK bought set to you might be significant, but could be offset if your 'agent' in the Uk had a Halfords Trade card.     

John

Edited by john.r.davies
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7 hours ago, john.r.davies said:

I'm amazed!     I did exactly the same, and although I had been abusing the tiny wrench, the manager gave me another out of a set on display, no questions asked.     

See the webpage on their  "Advanced tools" https://www.halfords.com/halfords-advanced-tools.html?msclkid=47c4cc16b64811ec83c45defe600e31d   and note the line "Simply return the product to your nearest Halfords store and a store colleague will either provide you with a replacement on the spot or order one in for you."

Maybe sometimes junior staff are not up to speed on Halfords' policies.

 

Chris, this benefit of having these tools will not be available to you in Spain, but the quality would.     The cost of shipping a UK bought set to you might be significant, but could be offset if your 'agent' in the Uk had a Halfords Trade card.     

John

And the case lid hinge has broke so I have to keep it flat or the tools fall about and that is a pain. Would the storage case be under the guarantee do you think? 

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