James "I want a compressor _and_ a Dremel for Christmas" B. said:
> Russ (I'll take my Louisville Slugger over your pneumatic wrench) Wilson,
>
> I'll take the air wrench, _and_ spot you a half-mile run-up with a JATO boost.
>
> Having gone through your situation before ('69 Chevy pickup), I was amazed at
> the ease and speed with which my real mechanic friend used an impact wrench to
> remove the pinion nut. Apparently, the longer the cheaterbar you use, the less
> effective your blows are, due to flexing of your cheaterbar. Or maybe its just
> that you and I can't deliver the repeated shocks to the nut. Or, it could be
> that the nut is just being stubborn, and having a large power tool placed over
> its head and having itself repeatedly bashed about in a noisy fashion simply
> scares the nut into coming off. At any rate, it was worth it to get an impact
> wrench into the fracas.
Instead of using up valuable MG part storage space for a compressor, I use
an air bottle. Whenever I need to blip off some stubborn part, I take my air
bottle to the local gas station and fill it up, and when I'm done blipping, I
have enough air left over to fill up the flat tires on all my project cars.
And it's much easier to carry around than a compressor... and cheaper. In
fact, it didn't cost me anything because friends bought it for me when I was
doing a brake job on their '69 Chevy pickup (where have I heard that before?).
BTW, I don't think it's fear that makes stubborn nuts come off with an impact
wrench, it's surprise. There's the nut, minding its own business, when it's
suddenly slammed by an impact socket before it can even think about overcoming
the inertia of whatever rotating part to which it's attached. This is handy
when doing battle with front pulley bolts, lug nuts, flywheel bolts, wheel
bearing nuts, and their ilk.
And while I'm quibbling, if you must get a compressor, instead of a Dremel,
get a pneumatic die grinder. With prolonged use, air tools get cold as
opposed to electric tools that get hot. They also last longer and turn more
smoothly at slow speeds.
Denise "tool guy" Thorpe
thorpe@kegs.saic.com
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