The importance of the right tooling

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I have worked in the automotive industry for over 30 years and owned my own shop for 16 years. During that time, I have worked as a technician in both dealerships and independent repair shops. Having all this experience, I understand the importance of having the correct tooling. My technicians know that we are one of the most well-equipped shops in the area. Some of the most important tools a technician owns are their hand tools and their specialty tools. Hand tools are the foundation of every technician’s toolbox – they need to be high quality and readily available at all times as they will be put to work often. Specialty tools may only come out every once in a while, but they are essential for quickly and safely getting some of those trickier jobs done.

Safety first

First and foremost, I'm concerned for my technician’s safety. Recently we ran into a string of leaf spring replacements on class 6 trucks. The springs themselves weigh about 200 lbs each, are bolted in the front, and have to be slipped into the rear leaf spring shackle. It truly is a two-person job. However, one of my technicians was impatient one day and decided to try and put it in by himself. The spring got away from him and smashed his hand. Fortunately, there were no broken bones, but his hand was very sore, nonetheless. The next morning, we went and purchased an AutoZone Duralast 2-ton Engine Hoist and proceeded to re-engineer it to fit in the wheel well of the trucks (Figure 1). We basically cut it down by 10”, a simple but easy modification. We attached a chain to each end of the spring and then proceeded to pick it up with the engine hoist. It makes it a 10-minute job on the installation with no physical exertion by the technician.

Think big picture 

 In recent years, we have begun doing ADAS work. As a result of this, it has become 1/3 of our business model. This type of work in supporting the body shops consists of subframe replacements, steering and suspension repairs, ADAS calibrations, and electrical work as well as programming and coding modules. Since a great deal of the work is steering and suspension-based, I purchased a Matco toolbox and a full set of wrenches from Snap-on. (Figure 2), The placement of the toolbox close to the alignment rack has saved a great deal of time. Instead of having the technicians walk back to their own toolboxes to get what they need, they can just grab tools from the Matco box.

Although the Snap-on wrench set was almost as much as the toolbox, the ROI has been huge. I am a firm believer in buying high-quality hand tools. The ergonomics of high-quality tools have a better feel in your hand and also tend to cause less fatigue as the day goes on. Before I placed the toolbox there, I watched one of my technicians walk back and forth to his toolbox five times on one alignment. His bay was all the way at the other end of the shop. Each trip was close to five minutes. That was close to 25 minutes in my mind wasted. Picture that on almost every alignment. Our average time for an alignment is now 15 to 20 minutes, not the 30 to 40 minutes when the technicians were using their own tools.

Find the tool that works for you 

About a year ago we had a RAM 4500 in for front ball joints. Now if you have not had the pleasure of doing ball joints on one of these trucks, avoid it like the plague unless you have the right tooling. I am not sure if it is the design because of the weight of the truck, but the ball joints have an incredibly tight fit. It took my two senior technicians five hours one afternoon to do both sides with a conventional ball joint press. They used a conventional ball joint press along with a mini sledgehammer, a torch, and an air hammer. The fumes that came off the ball joints themselves would literally take your breath away if you breathed it in. To this day I can’t tell you how impressed I was with their commitment to changing those ball joints. They did get it done, but I immediately reached out to my Matco dealer to look for an alternative. I was not going to ask my technicians to do another job like that again (Figure 3).

He advised me that Matco tools had just come out with a new design ball joint press BJP18100. It is a cantilever design and provides two-to-one leverage. Though buying a new tool may seem like an expensive option we technically already had the equipment to do the job, let’s look at the math to see if it was worth it. At that time our labor rate was $135, so two technicians worked on this vehicle for five hours each for a total of 10 hours or $1,350. I essentially lost six hours of time on that job or $810. In one job we lost enough money to almost pay for the tool. My one technician almost exclusively uses this tool for servicing ball joints now. 

Time savings 

With all the steering and suspension work we are doing on our client’s cars and body shop cars; we replace a lot of inner tie rods. We used to use an inner tie rod tool with different crows’ feet that locks in at one end of the tool. We have since started using the Matco Tools' inner tie rod tool with a locking roller cam. It is easier to work with, you don’t have to find the correct size crow’s foot, it is only one piece, and it even works on tie rods without flat spots. It also makes it so that we can change the inner tie rods on the alignment rack with very little trouble. The amount of time saved with this tool is fantastic. It was a simple upgrade to the tool, but very worthwhile for the technician’s benefit.

 Tools to fit your environment

This is most technicians' least favorite drawer in their toolbox. If you are going in this drawer, you are at war with a broken bolt. Remember having the right tool is key to winning the war you are about to engage in. We are part of the Rust Belt. As a result, we do quite a bit of exhaust manifold bolt and stud replacement. On certain vehicles, it isn’t possible to get a straight shot at the stud to drill it out. So, we have a wide variety of broken bolt and broken stud extractors. One of my favorites is the Mayhew 29895 stud extractor. This is the perfect tool if even a small portion of the stud is exposed. It works like a drill chuck, with one important difference, which is it gets tighter in a counterclockwise rotation. The significance of this is that when you are trying to loosen the stud, the tool continues to tighten. There are replaceable jaws on the inside of the tool so that you don’t have to buy a whole new tool when they get dull. As you can see from the picture (Figure 4), I have many other extractors depending on the job. 

Some final thoughts

In closing, if you have the right tools, you are more likely to complete the job in a timely manner, your technicians are less likely to get hurt, their frustration level will be lower, and you will be much less likely to have comebacks from trying to assemble something when you didn’t have the proper tools for the job.

If you are borrowing a tool, think of the time wasted first tracking the tool down and then finally going to get it. Our rule of thumb is if we borrow a tool twice, we are purchasing that tool. Time is money.

Most importantly though, if you’re working a one-off job, consider turning the job down. I have seen many shops backed into a corner where they have a vehicle for months by getting in over their head. Ensure your shop has the basic hand tools needed for everyday work and the specialty tools needed to make their jobs easier. Though a simple concept, it’s essential for running a successful business.