Best Tool Ever
 

Sometimes I make a tool which I find simple and worth having. Here's not a bad one, took a bit long on the lathe than the 30 seconds I was originally planning to spend making it smooth, but I'm happy with what I got!
http://abefm.smugmug.com/photos/456494104_eocLW-L.jpg
Basically, it's just a short rod, actually an alum tube (so it's light, won't scratch anything), with nice smooth bottoms. I use it to drop down the spark plug hole to tell me when I'm at TDC or BDC, generally for leakdown tests, but also for other things.
http://abefm.smugmug.com/photos/456493945_hmYcn-L.jpg
The amazing part was putting little rings on it every 100 mils, and a heavy one every 500, so I can tell what mark is what, check if all pistons come up to the same height, and generally know where I'm at.
http://abefm.smugmug.com/photos/456494169_2Pyjz-L.jpg
I've used threaded rod before, but it's much more worrysome. This is totally worth the $3 for a piece of tube - if you tear into your motors ever, it's worth getting.

Pics or it didn't happen.

Abe, you are the only person I know who has a tool specifically for determining which rod is bent.

That's a scary ass knife you built there.

Ive doe that with a long screwdriver

x2.

i was kind of hoping for a back-story on that too

I use the oil dipstick

I think that's a shank. How long were you in for, Abe?

Cant be a shank, not made out of a tooth brush or a food tray! :giggle:

x2

I cut up a clothes hanger for when i did a t-belt job on my pathfinder. It worked pretty well!

do not drop anything hard with your tool. you can score cylinder walls.

You'd score the surface of the piston, and that is all... As long as it is straight.

you mean a shiv?

abe, why dont you make your rod out of delrin?

Pat: There are pics??

I worry about it being too hard... And screwdrivers, dipsticks, etc, don't have marks, might not lay flat, etc - I wanted something that could rotate and not change its height.

Ah. A friend bought a butterfly knife, which was very nice, but needed some work - after sharpening an whatnot, I decided I didn't like how the clasp was on the "other" side, so I tried to move it over. But the metal was so cheap, it kinda split while pushing out a brass pin. I got it all back together, but he got *mad* that it was scratched, and snapped the handles in half with his bare hands (a testament to the quality of the metal).

So I notched a piece of thin walled pipe and welded it as a handle for the blade. We all got utterly drunk, set up work lights in the back yard, and thew the knife at a wood pile at 3 am. A surprising number of people walk past my missing backyard fence late at night on a friday. It worked awesome, actually, till this big polish guy bent it all up after hours of everyone else using it.

Everyone tells me it's a shank. I guess that's what you call it.

As to material "choice", it was what I had laying around. I agree it'd be superior out of an appropriate plastic. Also, it might be nice if it were a tighter fit in the spark plug hole so it didn't lean. Maybe even fatten up the top so it's easier to judge the height. But the marks are repeatable as the lean angle is the same across the motor.



Heh, Joe, I put a friend's subaru back together with that welder, he bent up his control arm hopping a curb at 50 mph - understeery pieces of trash. :-) I wouldn't say practice makes perfect, but practice does make actual welds (unlike what's on that knife).