This should go under a category of what the heck have I been doing until now?! I finally purchased and setup an air compressor for the garage a little while back. Bought the bargain 14pc kit with it. This past week used the 1/2″ impact to take off the wheels on the hachibroku. It was almost fun! After a few impacts the lug nuts spun right off, it went by so fast I felt like a racetrack pit crew person.
Then last night I decided to tackle the timing belt issue. Redline had a Gates timing belt kit for the car so I decided to work on that. The hachi’s FR layout makes working on the engine easier. Removing the radiator gave wide open access to everything up front, so I was able to get the impact wrench on the p/s pump pulley nut and spin that right off without even having to press and tighten the belt to keep it from spinning. It took almost 20 seconds of impacting, but the main crank bolt came off too, no need for the kustom Root crank holder, or the somewhat dangerous trick of puting breaker bar on and spinning starter motor. Everything was off so fast and with minimum effort that I found myself standing in front of the car and just stareing at it. And then using the airgun to blow clean the area. Dang, why did I wait so long to get a compressor and air tools?
The compressor is the Craftsman “Professional Series” 25 gal, 1.8 hp horizontal tank unit, old school two piston, belt driven, oiled compressor. Quite good volume for a small unit, almost 6CFM at 90 PSI, and importantly it’s quiet! Runs on a 110V 20A circuit. Capacity has been fine for what I use it for. Remains to be seen how well it can work for painting.
The 14pc air tool kit also from Sears is decent, as expected from a budget kit not the best tools, but decent for a home mechanic. The 1/2 impact worked to get off the crank bolt, which is typically quite tough, although the low power setting doesn’t seem to work. The 3/8 ratchet ratchets. It couldn’t loosen bolts that should have been torqued at around 30 ft lbs. The DA sander sands. The air grease gun is a somewhat odd item for a kit, haven’t used it yet. Also haven’t had a chance to use the right angle die grinder, I imagine it works fine, although I think I prefer a straight for much of the grinding work I’d use it for. Nice that the 25′ hose is rubber, not the coily hard plastic hoses that like to come apart. My only real complaint with this kit is the carrying case. Blow molded plastic case is convenient to hold all the tools, but was made to hold the tools without the quick connect nipples installed. Once you take the included nipples with the included teflon tape and install them onto the tools, they no longer fit in the case! What use is the case now? What would be the point of unbolting the nipples every time you’re done to store your tools? I took a knife to the case and modified it so most of the tools fit with the nipples, but the DA sander wont fit in. But for the money, it’s a decent introductory kit.
3.5 out of 4 compressing monkey for compressor, 3 out of 4 tool monkeys for kit value.
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