Here Are Five Really Basic Wrenching Tips To Make Your Life Easier – Jalopnik

Photo: Rob Emslie/Jalopnik

Whether youve been working on cars your whole life or are just jumping into the wrenching game, there are some good habits to culture. Some of those habits are so simple that some of us might have simply forgotten them.

Ive been working on cars pretty much my entire life, starting out when I was a wee sprout helping my dad do minor work like changing a battery or flushing a radiator. My dad passed away when I was 13 years old, and his guidance was sorely missed when I bought my first car a year later a tatty 1961 Chevy Corvair 700 turtle-top that my brother helped me nurse home. I learned how to wrench on that car and boy did it need a lot of work by way of two factors: a kindly Corvair mechanic who helped me immeasurably, and the Goodheart-Willcox book, The Automotive Encyclopedia, which taught me the basics on how things like suspensions and alternators work.

Since then, Ive gone through a cavalcade of cars and seeing as I seem to have built a rudimentary level of automotive knowledge, Ive tried to keep them all up on my own as much as I can. Over the years and all that work so many black-rimmed fingernails! I have amassed a few habits and processes that have helped me along the way. As Im a giver, I thought that you all might benefit from some of the very basic ones, since some are so simple that they might have slipped by.

To that end, here are five dumb tips to keep your wrenching from becoming too well, wrenching.

Photo: Rob Emslie/Jalopnik

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Youve likely at one time or another tried to pick up the stand by the ratcheting post only to have that pull out of the base entirely. If you picked it up at an angle, that slip may occur at a great enough height to have the base drop on your toes. Ouch!

Photo: Rob Emslie/Jalopnik

If you have the standard style of jack stand you know, like the ones Harbor Freight had to recall a couple of times then theres a quick solution to this potentially toe-amputating occurrence. Just push in the little tab on the base that keeps the center column captured and youll never have to worry about it slipping out again.

Photo: Rob Emslie/Jalopnik

I just want to start this one out with the assurance that I am not scared of the dark. Clowns, yes. The dark, not so much. Still, I dont like working in the dark and that means that I have amassed a collection of different styles of work lamps for various jobs. I even have one of those lights that mount around the head with elastic straps that makes me look like Im wearing an illuminated jockstrap.

As appealing as that mental image might be, my go-to wrenching light is actually an old-school trouble light. I like this one because it has a metal age that blocks the light from getting in my eyes and an electrical outlet in the handle that also makes it a convenient extension cord.

Photo: Rob Emslie/Jalopnik

What I dont like about it is that when used with a traditional incandescent bulb it tends to become an unwieldy branding iron from the bulbs heat. That traditional incandescent bulb also represents a significant hazard should the lamp be dropped and the bulb break.

To solve both of these shortcomings, I replaced the old-school bulb in my trouble light with a fancy new LED bulb. Its both cooler and, owing to its mostly plastic construction, a whole lot more shatter-proof. The LED bulbs are no longer that expensive either I get mine from the 99-Cent Store. As a side benefit, LED bulbs use less electricity than incandescents, so Im saving myself money and the planet at the same time.

Photo: Rob Emslie/Jalopnik

One thing that Ive taken to do, and which I think might be of benefit to all your future selves, is to set my socket wrenches to undo at the end of each project. Its most likely that at the start of the next project Ill be taking things apart, only to find out that the ratchet is in righty-tighty rather than lefty-loosey after snaking it into an awkward position. Its a bad way to start the day. So, Ive started checking and setting them to the undo position before putting them away. This of course doesnt apply to my torque wrenches which are always in tightening mode. In fact. I dont think Ive ever flipped a torque wrench the other way even once.

Photo: Rob Emslie/Jalopnik

I love getting big stuff delivered to my house in cardboard boxes. I especially enjoy it when those boxes are tall and wide while comparably skinny. Those are the best for opening up into a flat, reasonably clean work floor under your car. Also, who doesnt enjoy that rich, satisfying cardboard aroma?

Not only will the cardboard work floor keep your garage floor or driveway free from any spilled oils or other fluids something I woefully learned far too late changing the oil on my Porsche but it also makes for an easily slidable surface to retrieve any dropped nuts and bolts or that 10mm socket thats always trying to get away.

On a related note about those 10mm tools that always seem to get misplaced

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Dont ask me why the 10mm hex is seemingly one of the most common bolt sizes on cars and trucks these days. Thats way above my pay grade. Still, our vehicles seem to be festooned with the dang things and thats why were more often than not reaching for that 10mm socket or a 10mm wrench. Doesnt it suck when either one of those goes missing? No lie, my decade or more old Craftsman-brand 3/8-inch socket set has all of its original six-point sockets in it with the exception of the 10mm. I do know what happened to it, I dropped the little bugger down one of the dark recesses of my old Audi A6s engine bay and the car decided to keep it.

Photo: Rob Emslie/Jalopnik

Being in the middle of a job and suddenly being without the most necessary tool in your arsenal can really mess up your mojo. After all, who wants to get as cleaned up as needed to make an emergency trip down to the parts store or home center just to get a replacement socket?

Instead, pay yourself forward and buy a few of these tools to keep on hand just in case. Not only will you thank yourself later for having such amazing foresight, but youll be set in those auspicious occasions when you might actually need two 10mm sockets, at the same time!

There you go. Five basic tips. They may be really elementary in appearance, but hopefully, you found at least a couple of them helpful and not totally obvious. Now that Ive shared, what about you? What are your go-to wrenching habits that you think the rest of us should know?

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Here Are Five Really Basic Wrenching Tips To Make Your Life Easier - Jalopnik