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Auto Tool Definitions

To: hugh.mcaleer@hideout.com
Subject: Auto Tool Definitions
From: "Michael D. Porter" <mdporter@rt66.com>
Date: Thu, 29 Aug 1996 18:14:59 -0700
Cc: triumphs@autox.team.net
References: <9608221643.AA21673@an.bradford.ma.us>
This has appeared elsewhere a few times, but everyone probably needs a 
refresher 
course on tools. <g>  Credit Andrew Hay for posting this on diy_efi, so I could 
steal 
it and pass it on.


> an oldie but a goodie...  enjoy!
> 
> Automobile Tool Definitions
> 
> Hammer: Originally employed as a weapon of war, the hammer nowadays is used
>         as a kind of divining rod to locate expensive car parts near the 
>object
>         aimed at.
> 
> Mechanic's Knife:       Used to open and slice through the contents of 
>cardboard
>         cartons delivered to your front door; works particularly well on boxes
>         containing convertible tops or tonneau covers.
> 
> Electric Hand Drill:    Normally used for spinning steel Pop rivets in their
>         holes until you die of old age, but it also works great for drilling
>         roll bar mounting holes in the floor of a sports car just above the
>         brake line that goes to the rear axle.
> 
> Hacksaw:        One of a family of cutting tools built on the Ouija board
>         principle.  It transforms human energy into a crooked, unpredictable
>         motion, and the more you attempt to influence its course, the more
>         dismal your future becomes.
> 
> Vise-Grips:     Used to round off bolt heads.  If nothing else is available,
>         they can also be used to transfer intense welding heat to the palm of
>         your hand.
> 
> Oxyacetelene Torch:     Used almost entirely for lighting those stale garage
>         cigarettes you keep hidden in the back of the Whitworth socket drawer
>         (What wife would think to look in there?) because you can never 
>remember
>         to buy lighter fluid for the Zippo lighter you got from the PX at Fort
>         Campbell.
> 
> Zippo Lighter:  See oxyacetelene torch.
> 
> Whitworth Sockets:      Once used for working on older British cars and
>         motorcycles, they are now used mainly for hiding six-month old Salems
>         from the sort of person who would throw them away for no good reason.
> 
> Drill Press:    A tall upright machine useful for suddenly snatching flat
>         metal bar stock out of your hands so that it smacks you in the chest
>         and flings your beer across the room, splattering it against the 
>Rolling
>         Stones poster over the bench grinder.
> 
> Wire Wheel:     Cleans rust off old bolts and then throws them somewhere under
>         the workbench with the speed of light.  Also removes fingerprint 
>whorls
>         and hard-earned guitar callouses in about the time it takes you to 
>say,
>         "Django Reinhardt".
> 
> Hydraulic Floor Jack:   Used for lowering a Mustang to the ground after you
>         have installed a set of Ford Motorsports lowered road springs, 
>trapping
>         the jack handle firmly under the front air dam.
> 
> Eight-Foot Long Douglas Fir 2X4:        Used for levering a car upward off a
>         hydraulic jack.
> 
> Tweezers:       A tool for removing wood splinters.
> 
> Phone:  Tool for calling your neighbor Chris to see if he has another
>         hydraulic floor jack.
> 
> Snap-On Gasket Scraper: Theoretically useful as a sandwich tool for
>         spreading mayonnaise; used mainly for getting dog-doo off your boot.
> 
> E-Z Out Bolt and Stud Extractor:        A tool that snaps off in bolt holes 
>and
>         is ten times harder than any known drill bit.
> 
> Timing Light:   A stroboscopic instrument for illuminating grease buildup on
>         crankshaft pulleys.
> 
> Two-Ton Hydraulic Engine Hoist: A handy tool for testing the tensile
>         strength of ground straps and hydraulic clutch lines you may have
>         forgotten to disconnect.
> 
> Craftsman 1/2 x 16-inch Screwdriver:    A large motor mount prying tool that
>         inexplicably has an accurately machined screwdriver tip on the end
>         without the handle.
> 
> Battery Electrolyte Tester:     A handy tool for transferring sulfuric acid
>         from car battery to the inside of your toolbox after determining that
>         your battery is dead as a doornail, just as you thought.
> 
> Aviation Metal Snips:   See Hacksaw.
> 
> Trouble Light:  The mechanic's own tanning booth.  Sometimes called a drop
>         light, it is a good source of vitamin D, "the sunshine vitamin", which
>         is not otherwise found under cars at night.  Health benefits aside, 
>its
>         main purpose is to consume 40-watt light bulbs at about the same rate
>         that 105-mm howitzer shells might be used during, say, the first few
>         hours of the Battle of the Bulge.  More often dark than light, its 
>name
>         is somewhat misleading.  [Ed. note:  it has not yet been confirmed 
>that
>         Lucas holds the patent on this device.]        
> 
> Phillips Screwdriver:   Normally used to stab the lids of old-style
>         paper-and-tin oil cans and splash oil on your shirt; can also be used,
>         as the name implies, to round off Phillips screw heads.
> 
> Air Compressor: A machine that takes energy produced in a coal-burning
>         power plant 200 miles away and transforms it into compressed air
>         that travels by hose to a Chicago Pneumatic impact wrench that
>         grips rusty suspension bolts last tightened 40 years ago by
>         someone in Abingdon, Oxfordshire, and rounds them off.
> 

-- 
My other Triumph doesn't run, either....



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