How to make a socket smaller

[normspanners]

A tip that may help someone.
I Needed a 52 mm socket the other day and had loaned mine out (typical) but it is coming back 60 odd miles!! today, and didnt really want to buy another, but neither mac or snapon had them or listed them ! so I had the 55mm socket, and had some 1.5mm body steel sheet,
cut a strip the depth of the socket and worked out the 'circumference' then folded a hex 'tube' bobbed it into the socket 55 minus 3= 52mm. peened the edge out where a socket normally has a lead in radius
HEY presto 5mins I had 52mm socket but still have the 55mm undamaged worked a treat-------- job done.

 

[gordon stephenson]

Nice one Norm, I did the same with a square drive T handle that was too big for my tool post bolts,

 

[CompoSimmonite]

I've slipped washers into sides of sockets when they are too big

 

[Migmac]

I've used tissue paper to pack out slack sockets, don't think it would work in that big a gap. Nice one ns

 

[Woody.v8]

I've used tissue paper to pack out slack sockets, don't think it would work in that big a gap. Nice one ns

I thought tissue paper made things bigger?....It did on my Mrs,s bum !

 

[JEZGUZ]

I have used a strip of aluminium from a drinks can wrapped around the nut and a hex socket to undo a damaged nut, the double hex does not work so well.

 

[normspanners]

I needed a 75mm a little while ago 'in the field' and could not get back for my socket, the wheel brg had gone so found a 75 mm hex pipe fitting and ground it down slightly got some 30x 6mm heated it and folded it round the hex of the pipe fitting, to form the hex required then welded that to the end of a strip of 14mm thick flat plate, shoved the trucks hyab against the plate to hold it onto the hub and hit the end of the plate with sledge, to undo it, again worked a treat. Got the bearing fitted

 

[rtbcomp]

It's surprising what you can do in the field when you have to. I adjusted the points on a Cortina with long bit of round steel and a half-brick I found in a layby.

 

[normspanners]

Ha postie just dropped off my 52mm ... BFL... but hey ho... friends is friends

 

[normspanners]

It's surprising what you can do in the field when you have to. I adjusted the points on a Cortina with long bit of round steel and a half-brick I found in a layby.

AH but thats technical
yeah ... mini fuel pump went, got home with the washer bottle full of petrol and a squirt every mile!!
wrecked the rubbers but a second class ride is better than a first class walk.. I say.

 

[rtbcomp]

^^ Nah, this is technical - I wired an SU electric fuel pump to the distributor contacts to get a car moved a short distance. Only worked for a certain rpm though.

 

[normspanners]

^^ Nah, this is technical - I wired an SU electric fuel pump to the distributor contacts to get a car moved a short distance. Only worked for a certain rpm though.

I did similar with a 2ltr montego rally chase car stuck in monaco, when they were new, wired the injectors to the coils with bulbs as resistors coz the ecu went T/U ( turned out it actually was the accident g switch wiring into ecu btw) and would take a week to get the new one out to it.
the car was full of metro 6r4 bits and they were worth well more than the actual car.
got home, just had a little over fueling low down, austin rover team were well impressed.

 

[gordon stephenson]

Long time ago, My xk150 SU petrol pump packed in, A couple of new replacements didn't last more than a few weeks, Used to keep on the move when they stopped working by leaning out of the drivers door, reaching under the sill and giving the pump a good smacking with my hand, And that would get me another half mile or so, When they wouldn't change the faulty pumps anymore. Stripped it down,Turns out that SU had replaced an insulating piece where the 12v supply went through the body and was soldered to the coil wires, Two bare soldered joints separated by only this new insulator, and it was absorbing moisture and shorting out the supply. replaced it with a piece of plastic and no more trouble, The pump was one with a square body and fitted with a short rubber breather tube. Does anybody know which model that would have been?

 

[CompoSimmonite]

I had an accelerator cable snap so simply swopped it over for the choke cable and got home on a "hand throttle"

 

[rtbcomp]

^^ I did that with my Landy. Went over some rough ground and some sediment got stuck in one of the jets. I found the choke would control the engine speed so got home that way. Then there was the time the gear lever broke off just when I'd changed into 3rd. Got home using a combination of the overdrive & Hi/Lo transfer gears.

 

[Migmac]

I had an accelerator cable snap so simply swopped it over for the choke cable and got home on a "hand throttle"

I did that on a marina van I had.

 

[bricol]

Not on the scale of some - on a summer trip out with a new girlfriend when in late teens . . . chronic misfire due to disturbed dirt in the SU floats blocking things up. Connected the float chambers to the twin outlets of the air horn . . . misfire . . . hit the horn . . . no misfire . . .

 

[Robotstar5]

A mate had the throttle cable break on a plastic pig (reliant 3 wheeler) so we fed the broken end back into the cab and got home with me acting as the "throttle man" from the passenger seat.

 

[rtbcomp]

Broke the clutch rod on the Riley, luckily I had a spare brake rod, a hacksaw to cut it to size and a set of BSF dies in the boot. A nearby garage let me use their vice and I made a new clutch rod.

 

[Robotstar5]

Broke the clutch rod on the Riley, luckily I had a spare brake rod, a hacksaw to cut it to size and a set of BSF dies in the boot. A nearby garage let me use their vice and I made a new clutch rod.

Sounds like my Dad and his SII Landy, he carried enough spares and tools for a roadside rebuild I remember him changing the front exhaust downpipe in the carpark at Saunderfoot while we were on the beach.