[Closed] More car stuff - impact drivers

My experience is that the stuck bolts are the ones that have limited access and impact drivers, either the mechanical or electric ones are tricky to get in the right place - especially the former as you need room to swing a hammer too.

I've always ended up using a nut splitter and then given the corroded exposed thread a good clean before using a new nut.

One you will buy for £100 will have limited use as it will not be nearly powerful enough. They will struggle to shift a wheel bolt.

Hm.

In this case I'm going to have plenty of room I think. But then again, I might as well just grind the buggers off.

I've had far more success freeing stuck fasteners with an impact driver than using long wrecker bars.

You do need to be able to get the wrench on the bolt though.

A £100 electric impact wrench probably isn't gong to be much good. they've got better, but you need to spend fairly daft money to get the kind of torque out of an electric impact wrench that you get with pneumatic wrenches. My electric impact wrench apparently puts out 650 Nm.

Pneumatic impact wrenchs involve buying a compressor etc. If like me your're tinkering in your residential garage, your neighbours might not be happy about a compressor running for long periods ...

I have a manual impact driver (the type you hit with a hammer), it has been really useful to undo some seriously stubborn screws were I was worried about ruining the heads - it was on a motorbike

A proper powered one would be awesome although I'm not sure when I'd actually use it...

It would be cool to have an air powered one powered from a compressor

I bought a corded Clarke impact gun. Plenty of power, more than capable of removing the castle nuts off drive shafts but as Wwaswas states they have limited use and mine has sat in the cupboard barely used. I did try using it for removing wheel nuts when changing to winter wheels, brakes etc but it's nearly as quick just using a breaker bar.
If you want a Clarke impact gun make me an offer.

michaelbowden

One you will buy for £100 will have limited use as it will not be nearly powerful enough. They will struggle to shift a wheel bolt.

Bullshit. I stripped a car which had been sitting in my driveway for two years with a friends £50 screw fix battery powered impact driver.

You also lack the feel with an impact gun and break a bolt easily leaving you with the bigger problem of removing threaded part of the bolt.

I have one and it only really gets used for wheel bolts. It *is* quicker & easier than a breaker bar, both removing and replacing. Then nip up with the torque wrench as usual.

And Craig's right, using it on small bolts is risky, I've sheared a couple due to not really paying attention.

Based on my experience, if it's a DIY style impact wrench I wouldn't use it on the car. I have a Bosch impact wrench that is pretty good at driving big screws into things, but I'd be pretty hesitant to wrench on the car with it. Probably Ok for wheelbolts, not good for small bolts (likely to shear) and probably not powerful enough to shift real stubborn things.

Assuming you have enough access, go with a breaker bar.

Well it's moot really - the whole rear subframe comes out, so I will be able to grind them out in the open air with full access.

Good to know re breakers though.

I was expecting something else from the words car, impact and drivers 😀

One you will buy for £100 will have limited use as it will not be nearly powerful enough. They will struggle to shift a wheel bolt.

Bullshit.

It's not. I tried to loosen wheel bolts with a Bosch impact driver and it failed to budge*. Not seized either, just torqued to 140nm. Wouldn't shift anything around the brake calipers or hub nuts, too.

*Edit : Out of pure curiosity. They easily came off with a 900mm breaker bar with little more than gentle hand pressure.

dont often use the big battery nut gun I have , just wheel nuts/bolts mostly but do use the little 1/4 drive 7v one as its small and great for little screws without ripping things apart

I did spend a little more than £100 on the big 1/2 drive gun though

For really stubborn bolts a torque multiplier is a good option, I've used a stahwille one and you have a lot more control than air tools or a breaker bar. (Way to expensive for diy purchase, but some place hire them)

I did spend a little more than £100 on the big 1/2 drive gun though

Yeah, I guess I should expand on my post and add that it was one of these that I used. Like I wrote, curiosity. I didn't expect it to budge something at 140 tbh.

[img] [/img]

Also out of curiosity I tried wheel nuts with an 18v dewalt impact driver. Nothing doing, but a 600mm bar did them no bother.
An impact wrench is a different beast though. I remember reading in practical classics or similar that those corded Clarke ones were great for rattling things off, but risky to use for doing stuff up, because of the torque.
Air ones are good, as mentioned above.

That is not an impact wrench

That's an impact driver

The Clarke 60quid electric impact is ****ing great. Took the crank bolt of many engines with it. It does wear though and get less powerful. But when new it'll take wheel nuts off. 320nm iirc it does.

I have moved onto an air gun and it's night and day for "feel" the Clarke is all or nothing.

But you need a big air tank for that. I've got 200l available.

Do not ever be tempted to use I.pact driver on a non impact socket. They are made of chrome molybdenum which is sorter than chrome vanadium . The cv can shatter under impact. Or at least split. Always wear safety specs(and I'm not a massive safety freak but I've watched them shatter on.folks before. - for this reason I've never been temped to buy the nice looking black coated cv sockets. I keep my cv sockets silver and my impacts black.

What he said re sockets too.
Anyway, what's wrong with mole grips, molgrips?

That's an impact driver

I know. That's what the thread asked about.

I use my impact driver (the screw driver kind above) on car stuff. Its very handy. You won't undo very tight stuff but it speeds up taking out bolts. I use mine to whip the seats out which we do quite often. 16 bolts so a bit of a pain with a ratchet but simple with an impact driver. Not an essential tool but handy occasionally. I wouldn't buy one just for car use but as I have one anyway for screwing I use it.

Oh wait, so there's a difference between impact wrenches and impact drivers?

I'm not very bright, by the way.

Impact drivers do low torque and have a hex fitting for driver bits.

Impact wrenches have 1/4 or 1/2 or in serious cases 1 inch square drive heads and a much higher torque output and much more useful on cars.

I do have an air ratchet which probably fills the hole you lot use impact drivers for.

I have a Rolson 24V impact wrench and it does land rover wheel nuts with ease (as long as it has good charge) when we need F1 style wheel changes between laps due to punctures / bent rims. Also have a no name 240V which is quite brutal. Between them they have dismantled many old land rovers and removed a few crank bolts (engines not pedals 🙂 )

The 'shock' from an impact wrench can often break the fastener free if rusted/seized much better then applying the same torque with a breaker bar which is more likely to twist and shear the bolt.

Agreed they are much different beasts to the diy impact drivers.

I should give a plug here for decent penetrating oil and the freeze spray ecp do

they have 2 cans - one called rostoff or something and the freeze spray is called super crack ultra !!! 😯

Agreed, wire brush on exposed threads and a dousing of penetrating oil, and give it good time to soak in. Makes a big difference.

I've been using the WD40 penetrating spray (the 'specialist' range, not normal WD40). So far this is the only stuck bolt - but I knew it was stuck because a couple of garages had been unable to do the alignment going back a few years now.

3 in 1 do a hi pen spray.

I like a 50:50 acetone and atf. Don't get it on your paint but it has godlike unsticking power