[rohrt]

I have flare wrenches but they don't work to well trying to tighten the PS lines on the steering box. There is just too little room to move unless the motor is out.

I see that they have flex head flar wrenches that have an offset that may work much better then what I have. I have also seen flare type crows feet that I thought may work even better.

What do you guys use?

[mechanickeith]

If I cant get a line wrench in there, I use the crows foot style wrench with a wobbly extention & ratchet. make sure if you get crows foot flare wrenches that they are a 6 point, not a 12 point.

[poncho447]

Crows foot. The job is still a PITA but it helps a lot.

[Cammer-6]

ditto on the crows foot flare wrench

[rohrt]

Went to sears and they wanted $80 for their flared crows feet 10 piece set. Looking on line they want $71. Everyone on the reviews are saying they are now made in China too.

I'm also in the market for some boxend offset wrenches. The sears ones were $50 and only went down to a 3/8 size. I think the bleeder screws on the car are 5/16 and the offset wrenches work great for that among other things.

I'm sure snap on and Mac are out of the question. Where are you guys getting your tools these days? I don't do this for a living so they don't have to be the best but not wanting cheap junk either.

[mark369]

Get them at Harbor Freight Less than $20 and life time guarantee. made in china too but cheap! I like everything but their battery operated stuff. They are on line too.

[rohrt]

I didn't realize that the Harbor Freight stuff was life time guarantee.

I did a bunch of online looking in it sad to say the Sears stuff is not that out of line on pricing if compared to the few remaining american made tools or Snap On or MAC.

[mark369]

It is only on the hand tools.

LIFETIME WARRANTY
Lifetime Warranty on Hand Tools! We guarantee our Hand Tools to be free from defects in material and workmanship for the life of the product. Limitations apply.

Last time I took a very old ratchet driver to sears they where going to give me a used replacement ! I kept my original one. The c clip kept coming out.

I try to only buy stuff on sale at Harbor freight!

[Bill Eveland]

I've got crows foot flare also. I never bought the set from snap-on , only the 2 sizes i've ever used 16 mm ( same as 5/8") and 18 mm.

[428PHIL]

Originally Posted by mark369

It is only on the hand tools.

LIFETIME WARRANTY
Lifetime Warranty on Hand Tools! We guarantee our Hand Tools to be free from defects in material and workmanship for the life of the product. Limitations apply.

Last time I took a very old ratchet driver to sears they where going to give me a used replacement ! I kept my original one. The c clip kept coming out.

I try to only buy stuff on sale at Harbor freight!

Sears always replace with a rebuilt Ratchet unless they don't have one, then they will give you a new one. Was given a rebuilt 1/4" about 20 years ago, still works like new.

[Deadhead]

Now Sears says if moving parts = not covered by warranty. Stay away.

[steve v]

Harbor Freight in Raleigh will not warranty a broken tool w/o your original receipt. I'd guess that's their corporate policy.
I'm surprised Sears/K-Mart hasn't played that card yet.

[Cammer-6]

Originally Posted by steve v

Harbor Freight in Raleigh will not warranty a broken tool w/o your original receipt. I'd guess that's their corporate policy.
I'm surprised Sears/K-Mart hasn't played that card yet.

they tried that once on me and I told them to look at the front of store where it says "satisfaction guaranteed" I got my replacement tool W/O receipt.

[rohrt]

Well stopped by the local garbage frieght and picked up some much needed tools. These things really are cheap and wouldn't be my first choice (or second or third), but I hope they can do the job for now. For what i paid for all of these (around $80) is what just the crows feet cost at Sears. The Harbor frieght tool here are thin and don't have a good finish, nothing special to the features at all. I'm going to consider them Temp tools untill I get to try them out.

I have some of thier impact sockets already and I do like them. Buying these just made me feel dirty.

I was working on my daily driver dodge intrepid and was cussing about not having a good set of metric wrenches. Why the heck don't any of the wrench sets have a 16mm?

Anyway I will try the crows foot tonight on the PS hoses and see how well they work. I needs some of the offset boxend wrenches to. Other kits from other places didn't go big enough or small enough so I was happy about the range of sizes.

[mechanickeith]

16MM= 5/8

[fiedlerh]

I bought some Astro Pneumatic metric crowfoot wrenches for my Honda power steering lines. Pretty good quality for made in China. http://www.astrotools.com/Most online retailers sell them.

[Lightfoot]

Originally Posted by rohrt;

Why the heck don't any of the wrench sets have a 16mm?

Some of them do, but I won't ever buy one that does because it's a waist of tool box space & money. (see mechanicKeith's post). What pisses me off is when they don't include a 17mm.
Three metric sizes that aren't really nesessary if you have all the SAE wrenches are:
11mm (7/16)
16mm (5/8)
19mm (3/4)

Snap-On combination wrenches with the flank-drive open end work extremely well for tightening line fittings without rounding the hex. I've even used mine, instead of line wrenches, for breaking them loose alot of the time.

[PMD1969]

What about Northern Tool? We have one equidistant from Harbor Freight so the gas money is the same. Anyone buying their tools?

[rohrt]

Just a follow up on the Harbor fright tools. The flared crows feet worked great. I put some serious torq on these lines and no hint of spreading. I can't believe it took me this many years to get a set of these.