Your Jesus part/tool

We've all been there. You find yourself needing a tool, especially due to lack of forethought, and it's never easy to find. Or that part on your car that has a well established removal procedure, which involves blindly popping it off with a small screwdriver, and listening for the metallic tings as it bounces off things, hoping to get a good read on where it landed, while praying that it's somewhere that won't require disassembling 20% of the car to get to (otherwise, forsaking it there and buying a new one).

Let's hear some parts on your car, or tools in your shop that make you go "Jesus, where did that go?"

Mine:

The big side cutters. I often resort to them out of frustration so I'm too out of my mind to put them back on the shelf or remember where I last used them to maim things.

Selector rod C-clips or intake manifold nuts on BMW M5x engine.

Every 10mm socket i've EVER owned.

mndsm wrote: Every 10mm socket i've EVER owned.

and wrench

DukeOfUndersteer wrote:

mndsm wrote: Every 10mm socket i've EVER owned.

and wrench

Followed shortly after by the adjustable wrench you started using after you lost your 10mm socket and wrench.

92CelicaHalfTrac wrote:

DukeOfUndersteer wrote:

mndsm wrote: Every 10mm socket i've EVER owned.

and wrench

Followed shortly after by the adjustable wrench you started using after you lost your 10mm socket and wrench.

LOL that's true, the adjustable wrench is also one, for similar reasons to the sidecutter. It's a tool that is used way too often, since you should have a more appropriate tool for any possible use of it.

I swore when I moved from the San Fransisco area that I'd buy a house with a big garage and put in a lift. Housing got really expensive when we were there, so we made out well on the house. I thought I'd be all set.

Well, Denver, turns out, isn't the cheapest place on Earth. I ended up opting for a great neighborhood close to work, but it's small with a small garage. No way a lift would go in there.

Recently, though, I've done the next best thing. Joined a place here called Club Workshop.

http://www.clubworkshop.com/

Not quite as cool as having my own lift, but at least I have one I can use, and a whole bunch of other cool stuff. Metal lathe is really usefull, and I finally learned to weld a little bit. Need to go practice.

DukeOfUndersteer wrote:

mndsm wrote: Every 10mm socket i've EVER owned.

and wrench

I seem to have trouble with my 12mm combination wrenches, but 10mm sockets are seemingly cursed.

My current garage albatross is a fuel pump block-off plate that I purchased about a year ago and now need. I cannot find it. I even made a most wanted poster for it and posted it on the door from the garage into the house. It's been driving me crazy for a week now. I think I need to do a major garage cleanout to find this stupid part. Just on principle I am not going to buy another one. I will find the one I've lost even if I have to empty out the entire garage.

Any screw on top of an engine. Especially the one in my Buick's cooling system, a bleed screw I believe. I've related the story of how I lost it elsewhere here.

My 10mm is keeping my 12mm company, wherever they are.

BigD wrote: Or that part on your car that has a well established removal procedure, which involves blindly popping it off with a small screwdriver, and listening for the metallic tings as it bounces off things, hoping to get a good read on where it landed,

Oh - you mean the clips that hold on crank windows? When I was into car stereo my Grand Am that went without those for 3 years because I kept fiddling with the stereo, and got tired of having to fling them into the grass every time I took off the door panels.

Closely related are the little plastic plugs that hold interior panels in, which seem designed to break off on either disassembly or assembly.

In addition to 10mm, I'll add 8mm and 12mm. They just disappear into whatever black hole is in my garage.

A more specific instance: There may or may not still be a 3/8" drive extension rolling around on the top of my Volvo's transmission. I lost it there removing the crank position sensor and couldn't reach/see it to get it back.

As of right now - the goddamn spanner for timing a BMW VANOS head. I'm going to end up turning this berkeleying thing with a brass punch in about 5 minutes.

Mine is my "jump pack" bright yellow portable battery jumper that for the life of me I cannot find.

as for wrenches/sockets. I now own 5 11mm wrenches. All the ones that disappeared over the years suddenly appeared last year from their vacation

mndsm wrote: Every 10mm socket i've EVER owned.

• eleventiy billion

It's worse when you have one set of tools and work in 2 garages 30 miles apart... I'm constantly going, "where the hell is ____? Oh yeah... it's in NJ [or PA]..."

My tire inflators are able to skip dimensions at will, they can be on the compressor or on the end of the hose one second, and totally disappear the next, not to return till well after I don't need them anymore. Of course I have two of 'em, in a failed attempt to not be out an inflator, I figured if one went away I'd use the other one but of course they both dissappear. Maybe I should store one in my gun safe but I don't wanna get that schooled by a tire inflator.

I have many 12mm wrenches, I do not know how I end up with them. 12mm sockets on the other hand disappear as fast as I buy them. Are the sockets changing to wrenches in my tool kit?

In reply to pilotbraden:

Apparently your toolbox is a time-share. Sell it now for big profits!!!1!

^ That's possible, except all my sockets turn into standard wrenches, not metric ones, you know, that would be useful on the japanese and german cars I own.

Been there done that spent almsot two weeks cleaning the shop and never did find the turbo I was looking for , an few days latter my friend comes over and ask what the hell I am doing and I tell him I about the turbo I am searching for . He then reminds me I sold it to him almost a year ago

Paul B

T.J. wrote: I think I need to do a major garage cleanout to find this stupid part. Just on principle I am not going to buy another one. I will find the one I've lost even if I have to empty out the entire garage.

mndsm wrote: Every 10mm socket i've EVER owned.

I must be weird, I don't lose these. Hammers on the other hand... and tape measures, too.

fast_eddie_72 wrote: I swore when I moved from the San Fransisco area that I'd buy a house with a big garage and put in a lift. Housing got really expensive when we were there, so we made out well on the house. I thought I'd be all set. Well, Denver, turns out, isn't the cheapest place on Earth. I ended up opting for a great neighborhood close to work, but it's small with a small garage. No way a lift would go in there. Recently, though, I've done the next best thing. Joined a place here called Club Workshop. http://www.clubworkshop.com/ Not quite as cool as having my own lift, but at least I have one I can use, and a whole bunch of other cool stuff. Metal lathe is really usefull, and I finally learned to weld a little bit. Need to go practice.

If only they had one of these in the Boston area...

As far as tape measures go, If I have two, I know where they both are all the time. If I have one, it is never found. I always keep two in the garage.

As far as missing tools go, I have had to train my children to return things to their original location, I have found a $160 Torque wrench in the sand box...

13mm wrenches.Stupid aircooled VW's

Also cut disks for my dremel. I have no idea why they are so expensive but I buy a sleeve, they go in the special part of my tool box for sharp cutty things and then disappear.

I constantly have small tools disappear. Any time Gertrude is feeling neglected, she'll grab the nearest tool and run away to try and get you to play with her.

She seems to have a special fondness, though, for gnawing on LED headlamps. I've lost two of them that way.....must remember to keep all tools off the ground when not in use.