[Q] Modifying tools

 

When I started this Triumph Bonneville project
I didn't know what special tools I would need,
if any. There were no surprises until I started
looking at the steering. First of all, the upper
triple clamp was held down with a big shiny nut
that looked to be around 1 3/16". However, a 30mm
socket is slightly smaller and a better fit so
that's what I bought (for Cdn $6). So far so good.

Once the triple clamp was off I discovered that
the steering shaft is bolted to the neck by means
of an interference fit between two thin (approx 1/8")
hex nuts, sized 1 1/2".

I don't have any wrenches that big in my battered
ex-phone-company-from-their-surplus-store tool box.
So now WTF was I supposed to do? Well yesterday
I just happened to be driving by KMS Tools near here
(in Coquitlam) and I see an in-house inventory clearance sale
going on in the parking lot. What a stroke of luck.

I was able to buy a 1 1/2" combination wrench for $3
and a 1 1/2" socket for $1! Sometimes things just seem
to fall out of the sky into your lap exactly when you need them.
(I wish that principle also worked with gorgeous blonde bimbos
like Paris Hilton *).

Anyway there's just one slight problem, the combo wrench.
The thing is huge. 18" long. I never expected to own
a wrench this big, unless I happened to acquire my own
railroad. The problem is the material is almost 1/2"
thick at the open end, way too thick for it to fit over
the lower locking nut and clear the top of the steering neck.

The box end is slightly thinner and not as wide,
so there would be less material to remove. I'd also
have to cut it open so as to get it on the lower nut,
but that would weaken it considerably. Either way
I'm going to have to remove some material,
ie with a grinding wheel.

Well, man is born unto trouble as the sparks fly upwards (Job 5:7)
and I foresee lots of flying sparks in the near future.
Maybe there's a easier way, such as buying the proper
Triumph tool (duh) but I expect it would cost me more than $3.

It seems rather a shame to degrade this gronker of a wrench
(it really belongs in the engine room of the _Queen Mary_)
but I don't expect I'll ever have any other use for it.

* On the topic of blonde bimbos, I've never felt comfortable
with the way Jack Nicholson dumped his sexy (but admittedly
not-all-that-brilliant) wife in _Five Easy Pieces_. After all,
Nature didn't make her to solve the Quantum Wave Equation,
just please her man and produce babies.

SQ

 

sean_q_ wrote:

[snip story about making special tools]

I have many wrenches that have been ground, cut, welded, bent, you name it.

The mark of a real mechanic is the ability to make his own tools.  It helps
to have machine tools, and a welder, but lots can be accomplished with a
cheap chinese angle grinder, a drill motor, and a MAPP gas torch.

 

Mark Olson wrote:

For sure. I have a few 'specials' from a homemade swingarm adjuster for
the old SD 900 Ducati to a cam belt tensioning tool for the Moto-Guzzi.
  A shortened 'long' extension for a ratchet with socket welded to the
end for getting at the front rocker cover bolt on an Aprilia Mille.Bent
spanners and ground screwdrivers are the norm.....

 



I am not sure that a 1 1/2" combination wrench in your lap would even
impress a wench like Paris....

 



Cheezus H. Keerist!

Here we go again! Are you *sure* you want to be a motorcycle mechanic
instead of a keyboard jockey?

The lower jam nut adjusts tension on the steering spindle bearing and
the upper jam nut locks the lower jam nut in place.

You need two jam nut wrenches to tighten the upper against the lower
jam nut...


The lower nut is not a "locking nut," it's bearing torque adjuster.

And your combo wrench 's the *wrong kind of wrench* for the purpose.

All old time mechanics used to have a set of *thin* tappet wrenches to
adjust valve clearance on flat head engines


Use a *belt sander*, if you have access to one, and you want to come
out with a tool that doesn't look like a cave man tried to knapp it
from flint.

Customer knife makers use belt sanders to thin down their blades,

Alternatively, start looking through tool catalogues for tappet
wrenches and other thin special purpose wrenches.

Aircraft tool suppliers might have such wrenches, as aircraft bulkhead
electrical receptacles are secured to the bulkhead by thin, large
diameter jam nuts.

It's been so long since I worked on aircraft, I've quite forgotten the
name of the manufacturer of those wrenches.

Seems to me it started with a "B"...

Or was it a "D"?

It sucks to get old...


Hey! I have a 1-1/2 inch combo wrench in my big tool box and it sits
next to my 18-inch Crescent wrench.

I use big tools on cars and trucks all the time.

Machinist mates on ships use wrenches that tighten nuts and bolts that
are a foot in diameter...