here's some I've collected in a word document over the years... used most with good success. I used to know a lot more... but I forgotum

later
John





CRANK TURNER: Got an old steering wheel? Make up an adapter to match the steering wheel on one side and the crank snout on the other, bolt them together and presto!

PARTS PAN: You can buy small magnetized pans to keep small parts in as you disassemble something, but what if some of the components are bigger and you want to keep them with the smaller components? Get yourself an old transmission oil pan or an old steel baking pan, paint the inside white for high visability and put an old speaker magnet in the corner to hold the small parts.

TUBING TEMPLATE: Need to bend some hard line that will go into an confined space? Hard to get it right first time, so make yourself a template out of stiff wire like coat hangar wire and work out all the bends before hand. The results will look much better than guesswork.

JACK PADS: Got a real fine detailed clean undercarriage? Save it all from jack and stand damage by cutting out sections of rubber and epoxy them in place on the jacks etc. There are lots of companies now that produce rubber mats from recycled tires at cheap prices, sizes usually go from 1/8 to 1/2 inch thick. These work just great, and if you need thicker rubber, they manufacture thick rubber mats for horse stalls from old tires too.

SCREW/BOLT HOLDER: Keep losing that screw/bolt 'cos it's in a tight place and it just won't stay on the end of the screwdriver or ratchet? Jam the screw/bolt through a piece of electrical tape/duct tape, fit the driving tool to the screw/bolt and wrap the tape up onto the tool As soon as the fastener is threaded, remove the tape and tighten it down.

ANTISIEZE COMPOUND: Dip your fasteners in an antacid liquid. The calcium powder will dry to a white powder that won't burn off. And, when your project should all goes wrong as it occasionally will, you already have the antacid close to hand just for you.
TORQUE WRENCH: There are several types of torque wrench. The most common, (read: the cheapest) is the one with a long pointer that reads off a scale in front of the handle. The handle is pivoted in the center and should be kept "free floating" during use, other wise the torque readings can either be high or low, with possible unpleasant consequences.

HOLE SAW SAVER: Pack three or four wet paper towels inside the hole saw so that it will not overheat.

SMALL PARTS HOLDER: To keep small parts safe and clean,get a few plastic foam egg cartons. They are waterproof and have a built in lid.

DRILL DEPTH GAUGE: To drill holes of a specific depth, you need to use a locking depth gauge to stop the bit at the right spot. Don't have any? Wrap masking tape arount the drill shank at the appropriate depth and keep a steady hand and a sharp eye.

CHIP HOLDER: When you need to drill or tap a hole but don't want to have the metal chips fall into inaccessible areas, apply some white lithium grease to the volutes of the drill or tap, work slowly and remove the tool often to clean off the accumulated metal chips.

LEVEL JACKSTANDS: If you need to have your ride jacked up and level, paint each notch level of a pair of ratcheting jackstands a different colour. This will give you a quick reference instead of having to the count notches of the stands.

ENGINE STAND BOLTS: To save you having to hunt for, or even replace the long mounting bolts to your engine stand every time you need it, thread nuts onto the bolts while in the stand head. They'll be there when you need them.

SCREWDRIVER ANTI-SLIP: To keep that phillips screwdriver from slipping and rounding out the screw head, apply a little valve grinding compound to the tip of the screwdriver. This will give the driver a better grip and avoid slipping.

SAE vs METRIC: Working on a vehicle that uses both SAE and Metric fasteners can be frustrating enough to make you want to push it over a cliff and go buy a Harly. For a rough guide 1/2" = 13mm, 9/16" = 14mm, 11/16" = 17mm, 3/4" = 19mm and 13/16" = 21mm.

SHORT BOLT SYNDROME: Got a short bolt that needs to go into a hole and you can't use your fingers 'cos it's in a tight space, and if you put the bolt in the socket it drops right in and there are no threads you can use to start the bolt? Suff the socket with some foam rubber so that the threads are exposed, keep the bolt in the socket with some racers tape if nesessary. Now you can easily thread the bolt into the hole.

EASY FILLER SPOUT: Save those gear lube containers the next time you have one, y'know, the ones with the small spout and a handle. Not only does this design of container work great for filling rear gear cases, it's great for filling manual trans cases and it makes adding auto trans lube through the dipstick tube a breeze.

BODY BRUSH: You know the trick of using a toothbrush to clean out wax residue from body nooks and crannies, but to make a better version of this idea, go buy a 3 1/2" paint brush from your local hardware store and cut off all but 1/2" to 3/4"s of the bristles. Presto, a pro looking body brush.

TIMING LIGHT TIP: All timing lights are not the same! Many lights are designed to work under a 2000RPM range. Some are equipped with a trigger delay, something that has very little effect on light performance at very low engine speeds. but when an engine is brought up to race levels for timing verification, the timing appears to retard. Some lights are affected by radio frequency noise, and that's common if your ride is fitted with solid core primary wires. Many timing lights are simply inaccurate, and that does not exclude some hi-buck units. Two very good lights are the Sears Pensky or Sears Craftsman light part #A-2134 and the MSD lights, part # 8990.

EXTENSION TUBE: If you have to use glue, silicone, caulking, weatherstrip adhesive or other semi-liquid product in a hard to reach location, add a section of small diameter rubber hose, (vacuum or windshield washer hose), to the tip if the tube of product that you are going to use. This allows you to reach ares that before you could not.

WOBBLY FIX: Every so often you'll get a flexible socket adapter that loosens up to the point where every time you go to use it it just falls over to it's extreme flex and its a pain. A quick fix, is to tightly wrap a couple of turns of racers (duct) tape around the adapter joint and it will regain it's previous stiffness of movement. When the tape wears ou,t simply replace it. It's cheaper than a new unit.

TRANS ALIGNMENT: One of the most hardest things to do is to re-install an auto-trans without the proper equipment. Alignment it is a real pain 'cos the tranny is heavy as well as awkward. To help you do this easier, find two bolts with the same thread as the tranny mount bolts but longer. Make sure that they both thread easily into the blocks trans mount holes, then cut the heads off of each giving the cut ends a nice rounded chamfer. Now slice a slot across the blank ends of both studs that you have made. Install the studs in the engine block and then install the tranny, guiding it in to it's proper alignment using your new alignment studs. After the tranny is in place you can remove the alignment studs via the slots you made in the ends, with a screwdriver.

CHEAP SCRIBE: You don't have a metal scribe to your name, but you do have chewed phillips screwdriver. Simply grind the head of the bum driver into a nice sharp point. Now you don't have a chewed philips driver but you do have new metal scribe. HINT: Let it air cool after grinding so that the metal shaft retains it's hardness.

DRIFT OR PUNCH; Engines that have pushrod activated fuel pumps off a cam eccentric are a great source of superior hard steel for turning into drifts and punches, (assuming you can find a stone tough enough to grind it with). Much of the time they can be found lying around on the ground in wrecking yards and they'll be given to you if you ask.

SPARK CHECKER: These items can be bought for a reasonable dollar, but if you don't have one on hand you can easily make one. Take a new (or good) spark plug and either weld a moderately large alligator clip to it's metal side or drill a 1/16" hole in the outer steel shell and tap it for a 8-32 machine screw about 1/4" long. Now make a lead wire about 12-18" long. On one end solder a small eylet and on the other an alligator clip. The eyelet end is attatched to the plug via the machine screw and the alligator clip goes to a good ground source. Now insert the tool into the end of the plug wire to check and observe the spark using a remote starter unit. No spark, start looking for the problem.

QUICK FLARE: Need a flare wrench but don't have one on hand. Make one out of a box end wrench. Simply cut a slot in the end of the box wrench just big enough to slip over the line, and presto, a twelve point flare wrench.

BALANCER INSTALLER: Don't whack an harmonic balancer on to the crank end with a hammer, quite simply put .................you'll bugger it up! Instead, get yourself an 8" leangth of ready rod the same thread as the balancer bolt and two nuts to fit the rod. Thread it into the crank snout, slide on the balancer, next slide on the thick stock washer for the balancer and tighten down the first of the two nust you got. When the balancer is fully installed using this kinder, gentler method, snug up the second nut to the first, and back out the threaded rod. Now install the balancer bolt to specs. Voila! You now have a nice new tool and a balancer that is still in one piece!

SMALL PARTS: Save those clear 35mm film canisters. They are great for saving small parts in or selections of carb jets or fragile items or jet drills or 'C' clips or ............yadda yadda yadda.....