On Mon, Sep 15, 2008 at 9:04 PM, David C. <cavanadd@verizon.net> wrote:
> On 9/15/2008 Wayne wrote:
>> And I have a lot of cheap stuff
>> from Harbor Freight, Auto Zone and similar places. For as often as I
>> use it, a cheap approximation of the correct tool is better than
>> beating
>> on it with a hammer!
>
>
> And I'm (sorta) firmly in that camp, too.
>
> Case in point: Yesterday a friend of mine brought over the front axles
> and U-joints out of his Jeep Wrangler (that I sold him about two months
> ago). He wanted to change the U joints and replace the front
> bearing/hub assemblies. (BTW I gave him a hell of a deal on the jeep
> w/124K miles on it, so he knew it wasn't perfect.)
>
> My home made but fairly beefy 10 ton arbor press wasn't doing much to
> press the old U-joints out. He had also just bought a new Harbor
> Freight U-Joint press tool:>
> http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=38335
>
> which we used with my 1/2" impact wrench, which pushed the old U-Joints
> right out of the yoke.
>
I had one of those (not from HF, but similar level of quality and
price). I bought it to do spring bushings on my Land-Rover. It did
one. On the second, the threads came right off the threaded rod.
> Snap-0n makes an almost identical tool:
>
>>
>http://buy1.snapon.com/catalog/item.asp?P65=&tool=&item_ID=75396&group_ID=1613&store=snapon-store&dir=catalog
>
> but it costs almost TEN TIMES as much. And all it is is some cast iron,
> a threaded rod, and a couple of bushings.
>
> Now, the Snap On tool is probably finished more nicely, and they may
> even have used some kind of special heat treated alloy steel in the
> threaded rod. But ten times the cost? That's nuts.
With Snap-On, you're paying for the name, of course. A lot, some
times. But you're also getting a very high quality tool. You're also
paying for the interest free loans the drivers give people. And
you're paying for the truck to come to you. And for the level of
service you get from a good dealer. (The guys I've dealt with would
bring us a replacement of something we really needed the same day, or
the next. On one occasion, he had to find someone who had one to
borrow while our machine got fixed.)
--
David Scheidt
dmscheidt@gmail.com
_______________________________________________
Support Team.Net http://www.team.net/donate.html
Shop-talk mailing list
http://autox.team.net/mailman/listinfo/shop-talk
http://www.team.net/archive
|