Misc tips and tricks spares to carry

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Members Breakdown Kits

Jamesc76 I carry:

3 to 13mm 1/4 drive socket set 
8 to 24mm metric and imperial 3/8 drive socket set
24 to 36mm 1/2 drive socket set
Inch drive 46mm socket and bash bar
Spark plug sockets
6 to 19mm spanners
4 different size adjustables
Hammer, lump hammer
Full array of screw drivers
Mutli meter, with 4 different leads
Pliers, vise grips, mole grips, needle nose pliers, strap wrench
Jump leads
Tow rope
Wire
Soldering iron and solder
Crimps (loads inc fuse holders) wire stripers, crimp tool, bits of heat shirnk
Bulbs var.
Inspection lamp, mini mag light, 4d mag lite
Jubilee clips var.
Spare injector, coil pack, long plug lead
Noid lamp(for injection systems)
Surgical gloves
Splash proof one use overalls
Gaffer tape, electrical tape
Electrical cleaner spray, penetrating oil
RAC card
Mobile with internet
80-90 help list (must check if any new on it !)


Aidan

if you have breakdown/recovery then a spare fan belt and bulbs are all you need to carry, though I also find electrical contact cleaner is pretty handy if you get an earth fault as you can often 'fix' the fault by liberal application to the earth crowns and spade terminals I have a 2.1 though and I carry a complete (and I mean complete) ignition system in the van plus the fan and power steering belts, and the necessary bits to reconnect the inlet side if I get a backfire on lpg as I had this happen to me once when I had nothing in the van to reconnect the idle stab pipe and had to wait for RAC to show and get a bit of plastic tube to do the job. The gloves and a screwdriver live under the rear mattress so I can fix that pdq if required. screwdriver set and wire cutters, fuses, relays, light switch and hazard switch, spade connectors, some useful little wire links already terminated and inc a fuse holder, 10-19mm spanners cv bolt tools torches inc shake it charge it type cleanish used air filter for drowned syncro (useful eh Jed) engine oil, mixed coolant, power steering fluid, windscreen washer mix, vinyl gloves, overalls and some repair any pipe type of 2 pack putty for that big metal water pipe that one day will leak and a new darlek cap (for Roger :lol: ) if it requires bigger tools than that it's probably not a beside the road job.

on syncro trips may also add spare driveshafts and carpet for crawling under van plus recovery gear of course

mobile phone and rac card, hiliftjack and standard jack and wheelnut brace extending type (Draper Asda £4) and spare wheel at rear tyre pressure, tyre pressure guage that works so you can air down, oh and a small 12v compressor/light and a jump pack though this seems to be mostly used for starting the neighbours cars it seems.

that's a fair weight and not used on 99% of journeys in any shape or form, bulbs and fuses probably acount for most jobs so the rest is dead weight and wasted fuel , just so I can hopefully make it home under my own steam, proably a lot daft.

I've had one fan belt shred in 7 years I've been stuck once because of failed light switch (thanks Andy for not fixing known fault before letting me drive the NaafiWagon back to Warrington) I've been stuck once because of an earth fault (which RAC man couldn't figure out) which also left me without lights I had three water jacket failures during the time of dodgy seals, nothing you can do about that except stop, add as much h20 as you can and wait for recovery

five of these failures occurred in one 12 month period so I had about 4 months with no free callouts, and since then I haven't had them out at all, but there's only one van now so less to go wrong and less to neglect/forget about/make time to see to


ESSENTIAL SPARES

Oil

Coolant

Fanbelt


SPARES FOR LONGER TRIPS

CV joint

Spark plug(s)

HT lead(s)

Dizzy cap + Rotor arm

Fuel hose and clips and filter



ESSENTIAL TOOLS

Jump leads.

Self Amalgamating Tape, Essential emergency repair for water cooled engines, can be bought off ebay will repair a split solid coolant hose (possibly a rubber one at a pinch, might just get you home)Also think of some plastic hose connectors and jubalee clips of various sizes to replace split hoses.

socket set

spanners (inc 2 of 13mm) preferably good quality

screw drivers several long, short, flat and philips

voltmeter

large adjustable spanner 30mm+ (to fit gas bottle, steering wheel nut, front thermostat, header tank level sensor etc)

pliers

Good quality mole grips, nort silver chinese crap quality ones flat edged and curved, can double as hose clamps in an emergency.

stanley knife

(head) torch

Gaffer tape

superglue

magnetic pick up tool

disposable gloves

WD40

nylon rope (blue string)


TOOLS FOR LONGER TRIPS

compression tester

timing light

Halfords 1/4" drive Pro socket set (always handy & goes up to 14mm sckt, has all the screwdriver & hex/torx bits too) HM: Ratchet strap (2m long, good quality)

Recently, we had a clutch slave cyl. mounting bracket crack and fail, effectively no clutch, show over. Using a ratchet strap, (and some help from friends) we managed to strap the slave into place against the (v.high) operating forces, using a long ratchet strap around the whole bellhousing. Got pretty close to the driveshaft boot and even rubbed a bit, but clutch still working fine 200 miles later.

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