Until buying the coupe, i was a mechanicaphobe!?! (never touched the mechanicals of a car). However since having the coupe i have managed to do a few bits, change injectors, front console, replacement clutch slave etc and i am starting to get the bug....problem is i have literally no tools and just manage to get the jobs done with i believe sheer luck and the super help from the forum

What i would like to start doing is build up a tool kit relevant for the coupe. Can you start me off by letting me know the musts for my tool box please?

http://www.google.co.uk/products/ca...xTaWWAoHQhAfXw5CDBw&ved=0CDcQ8gIwAw#

Ive got two of these sets. Most use tool set for everything i do..car bits,boilers etc

Inspection lamp (it's kinda like a baton with LED's down one side VERY handy)

Socket set with ratchet, Halfords were doing a kit reduced from £50 to £20 which had everything, so I got one of those.


Those two alone are invaluable!

Oh and they're expensive, but a torque wrench is a really good investment.

Or just get yourself a Taffy20VT, they're really good. They run off 10 Lambert + Butler and cups of tea. Gets most jobs done

you need one thing.

Joe's phone number

Jack+axle stands
Up down up down
Left my undertray off.
Going back on after one more job? Mmm!

Socket set, allen keys, screw drivers, mole grips and a good set of spanners. Snap on tools

A packet of plasters

2 wrists and 3 elbows and one very small adamantium hand on each arm.

I am really appreciating all of your helps chaps! from your suggestions i am looking on the net finding prices etc and with the drivers, torque wrenches it mentions 3/4 head etc if i buy say a decent torque wrench should i then by a socket set that is the same size driver? or does it not need to be? again i am really sorry about the dumbness!

Mick

1/4 inch metric socket set

3/8 inch metric socket set

1/4 inch socket wrench

3/8 inch socket wrench

spanner set 8mm-19mm

screwdriver socket set with as many different bits as possible - especially. Torx bits

1/2 inch breaker bar

torque wrench

socket reducers to go 1/2 inch to 3/8 inch, etc.

spark plug tool

Draper Professional (not the budget range!) and Halfords tools are great low-price tools. Forget the Argos cheapo tat.

Also, Halfords' flexible-head wratchet spanners in 10mm, 13mm and 17mm are Man's greatest creations, Buy them!!

Anything else, just buy it when you need it!

Halfords tools are suprisingly good, and cheap, not sure they would stand up to proper workshop everyday use but for weekend tinkering they are pretty good.

If mine keeps misbehaving much more, I reckon either an AF or a metric crusher will be in order!

(Dont mean that really, I find prozak works wonders for severe cases of Coupe paranoia! )

Great stuff!

And thanks for writing up that list KJ, I now have a shopping list

One very essential item I see that's not mentioned, is a set of ribes. Fiat & Alfa use this system. They look like torx/star allen keys, but obviously different.

Coil pack cover & rocker cover are fastened down with the ribe type bolts.

Surprised no-one has mentioned wheel chocks!

You definitely need wheel chocks, even if it's just the small collapsible ones. You can even make your own: a chunky piece of timber, cut down to around eight inches long, three inches high and a 45' angle cut into the front face.

Bearing mind how poor the handbrake is on some coupés, or that you'll be working on the rear wheels, you really do not want to rely on the "put it in gear" method, I've seen that go horribly wrong in the past with fatal results!

I bought this set for £39.99 (Its gone up now), one of my best buys in terms of how often I use it and how much it's saved me. Socket set

A flexible driver with bits cost me £1 from poundland and was a total god send when doing my CHOD

Axle stands, (£9.99 from Lidl) very good quality and used loads.

Breaker Bar £9.99 from ebay, great for doing rear wheel bearings.

Halfords Professional Torque Wrench, bought in Sale for £49.99 it goes up to the correct torque for rear bearings, something most don't.

Trolley Jack, bought from, god knows where as I have had it for ages, but it's a very handy tool.

Telescopic Wheel wrench, £6.99 from Lidl, great tool.

Ratchet combination spanners £11.99 from Aldi, one of my brother in laws is a Ford Technician and scoffed at these when I told him, when he saw them he went straight over and bought 3 sets! So I can only assume that they are pretty good?

Over the years, I've amassed quite a decent toolkit, with specialist stuff such as hub pullers, spring compressors, timing lights, ECU diagnostics, tap & die set, brake bleeding kits etc etc as well as the usual collection of spanners, socket sets, screwdrivers, impact wrenches and of course, a small collection of hammers, ranging from a small ball-pein to a bloody great 7lb lump hammer

However, by FAR the most useful pair of tools I have was picked up from a pound shop:



I guarantee that sooner or later, you'll drop something into the Coupe's engine bay, and there's a VERY high chance that you won't hear it reach the ground. So - you're faced with 1) losing it 2) jacking the car up, taking the undertray off and retrieving it or 3) extracting it with either the grabber tool or the magnetic tool

Wouldn't be without it

Nigel,

yep I have one of those and it's one of those tools that you use and think, "bloody hell I am glad I bought that" saved my sanity at the end of a job, where just as you finish you drop a bolt down into the recesses and can't find it...

Noone mentioned the angle ground 35" socket for the wheel bearing? Or is there actually a part that fits now?

I'll need to dig out my old toolkit.

Need to stick pretty much everything in oil for a while to clean it up tho.

Ross

Is it not 36mm? And you can buy thin walled sockets to do the job.

A child as their hands are a lot small and they can get into all those awkward places ours can't

Yeah think it's a 36 and you need a crowbar and a scaffold pole to undo the wheel bearing/hub nut
Also a welder may be useful soon.

Sledgehammer!!!!

Door trim removal tool!

I must have been lucky in that this did the job Breaker bar

I bought mine about 18 months ago for £22.99 it's come in very handy! 8)

I had to put two wheel bolts back in put a crow bar between the hub and bolts at ~45° to floor lower the car and get a scaffold pole to slide over my 1m long breaker bar.
The crow bar stopped the hub rotating. Yes I had noticed the bent in bits on the nut

What I have found really useful is something that was in the fiat tool kit that came with the car. It probably has a name? Basically it's a threaded spigot for use when removing wheels. Take out one bolt and wind the spigot in, then lines up and wheel hangs on this when you put the wheel back on.

No way! I'd always wondered what that was actually for!

Way!