Socket set choice advice.....[and Peugeot frustration]

[Vortex5]

Background...

A couple of months ago I purchased an old but good nick freshly MOT'd Peugeot 106 in anticipation of my children (multiple) all needing to learn to drive over the next few years.

It's been in the garage for a couple of months, and I have taken it out every couple of weeks to keep the battery charged. Yesterday I backed the car out, and after about 1 metre one of the rear brake drums locked. After a bit of forward/reversing it freed itself. I tried again today, and it locked again. very annoying. Needs to be fixed.

Basically I need to whip the drums off, inspect, clean and grease and possibly change the shoes on these alien (Bendix?) self adjusting brakes.

So for the first time in 25 years I have today dug out my old trolley jack (still works amazingly), axle stands and other car tools that my father summarily ejected from his garage and passed back to me in the 1980's only to discover that I am an AF man in a metric world. I need a 32mm socket to get the drum off a Peugeot. I don't have any socket that large, let alone a metric one.

So I am in the market for a metric socket set that goes to at least 32mm, and I would like to get a decent one before next weekend.

This

has caught my eye.

Q. Is Britool a decent brand? Are there any other brands I should be looking out for?

David

[dom]

Britool very decent. Also have a look at Teng tools, amongst others. Or consider just buying the sockets you need piecemeal - ebay is your friend. The Halfords Pro stuff is quite unexpectedly good, if you need to buy locally - there's usually some set or other on offer.

French cars need strange tools IME, I've found ratchet spanners particularly useful, as are deep sockets.

[Vortex5]

hmmm.

I purchased my first car in 1977 (1959 mini with no seatbelts and starter button on the floor). 160 quid.

The socket set that I have must be from then. It was cheapo at the time; it's incomplete; the sockets are rusty where the chrome has flaked off; the plastic tray has completely biodegraded (just a tin of sockets); the tommy bar is bent......so think I'll be going for a full set.

Glad to hear Britool is an OK brand because that deal looks good to me. revisiting I see this

including AF as well for an extra 7 quid. Tempting.

UPDATE I just discovered I have no torque wrench. Must have lent it to someone and forgotten about it. I always wanted one of those sexy ones that "clicks".....time to investigate these now.

D

[The Medway Handyman]

I'd agree about Halfords, good quality stuff. They get a lot of stick for some reason but I've always found them & their stuff very good.

Avoid the el cheapo Argos stuff. Applied some welly to a stuck nut (just manual force, didn't whack it), socket deformed & ratchet slipped. It went back.

[Spamlet]

Before you get carried away: if your car has been recently mot'd the brakes ought to be ok. I suggest you start your investigation with the handbrake cable, for which you may only need spanners and an oil can.

S

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember "Vortex5" saying something like:

One grunt for head bolts, two grunts for lorry wheel nuts, two grunts and a fart for hub nuts.

[The Natural Philosopher]

My advice. Buy one good quality socket that fits the job in hand, NOT a set of dubious s**te that will fail on you when you need it most.

[tony sayer]

In article , Grimly Curmudgeon scribeth thus

Thats about how my dad used to do the nuts and bolts up on Spitfires ..

[The Medway Handyman]

Is that a metric fart or an imperial fart?

[Bob Eager]

I agree. I bought a cheap socket set when I was 16, as it was all I could afford. But even then, my plan was gradually to replace the sockets that I actually used with good ones (Britool as it happened). This was a mixed AF and metric set, and few of the originals are left. Almost my first purchase was a good ratchet handle to replace the tin one that came with the set.

It meant I could buy a set incrementally, and it includes sizes not in the original set. I still have all of the 'good replacements'. Just no pretty box.

[Tabby]

1/2" tools for 32mm? Very inadequate. Get yourself a 3/4" drive set minimum.

To use your imperial tools on a metric car:

[Adam Aglionby]

1/2 Britool on a hub nut should be fine, 3/4 drive on everything else be a right pain and expensive. 1/2 drive chunky on smaller and less accesible sizes, 3/8 is nice to have on sub 20mm. 6 sides, hex sockets for anything that looks at all tight, keep the star bi-jex sockets for whizzing alreday loose things off.

Halfords pro stuff as good as anyones and lifetime guarantee is actually useable, that Britool deal is very good for the money get any odds and sodds extra in Halfords.

Cheers Adam

[Vortex5]

I ordered the Britool set just now.

It would be nice to own a 3/4 inch set but we're talking Peugeot 106 (100 lb feet), not a Scammell tank transporter hub here.

Unfortunately I have extreme (and probably irrational) prejudice against Halfords so any extra bits will have to come from elsewhere!

[Dave Liquorice]

32 mm is BIG. Get a more resonable ranged set and a one off 32mm socket.

Only goes down to 8mm, small bolts can be 6mm and how often does one really use anything over 20mm? I've a "Clarke Pro" (aka MachineMart) set that does 6 to 19mm, I don't think I've ever used anything over

15mm but the 6,7,8,10 have all been used...

tooledup.com can be accessed via Quidco for a 5% cashback.

Aldle have a torque wrench on offer occasionally, around =A320 IIRC, does the bussiness, it's one of the "clicky" ones rather than bendy bar an pointer.

[Dave]

Buy the bigger sockets one at a time as you need to use them. Buy the lesser sizes the same way until you get down to about 19mm and even that, I would buy as a one off.

Dave

[Dave]

I forgot to add, buy a tee bar and try and find a length of tubing to go over the end of the tee bar for extra purchase. Don't try this when using a ratchet.

Dave

[Dave]

In that case, I have to assume you know where your local engineers supply store is. Because, Halfords, being a big name, can't afford to get a bad reputation for selling crap tools.

Dave

[The Natural Philosopher]

130 lb feet is abut the limit on 1/4".

[The Natural Philosopher]

No 3" is BIG.

32mm is 'medium'

[The Natural Philosopher]

ROFLMAO!!!!

Just about everything I have bought from halfords has been thrown away since, in the last 5 years.

They already HAVE that reputation..