Basic Diagnostic Tool Set

50 years ago a basic set could fit into your pockets. These days a basic set will take up the majority of a toolbox. Want to see intermittent drop outs in a sensor? A graphing meter with a high sample rate or a lab scope is essential.

You can get by with very little and I've done more with nothing than some have with tens of thousands of dollars in tools. Once, I diagnosed a bad ignition coil on an ATV in the woods by taking the gear indicator bulb and wiring off it and using it as a test light. But, if you really want to be accurate and fast you need to be willing to spend money where it counts.

Diagnostic tools aren't toys, they are investments that make us money. If you're a hobbyist or just want to fix your own cars you probably don't need to spend two grand on a Picoscope. It would be cheaper to load up the parts cannon. But if you do this for a living you're going to have to spend some cash.

I like ur thnking noah back in the day I use to visit old scrap yards for my home made testing tools connectors and build my own noid lites with resistor and leds I did one for the old ford eec4 tfi module with 9 volt battery. plugged it in looked for blinking lites on cranking engine. loaned it out never got it back lol. another old dino like me shared that he still uses varable resistor tools he made. tuning race cars recurving fuel and timming on ecm tuning

50 years ago basic tools cost a lot more than they do now, the price of a basic 17 piece socket set was probably more in the 1960's than 50 piece is now.

Nice list, I recently ordered a vacuum gauge - looks like I need a spray bottle as well

Not sure of the etiquette here. Can I comment on an old thread?

How about getting rid of all chrome tipped screwdrivers and getting the ones with black tips that don't just immediately ruin every screw head?

Comment away, more input is better for everyone
I don't have any trouble with rounding out screws since I stopped buying cheap screwdrivers. I've had my Snap On set a few years now, (chrome tipped) and while it was hard to justify the cost at the time, It has proven to be a good investment.
Same goes for the wrench set.

I stand corrected. Maybe I'll post my chrome tip screwdriver story in the off topic forum.

ISTR black finish is Parkerising - Parkerizing it is a hard phosphate chemical coating.

With crosshead, Phillips and Pozidrive screws using the correct size and style of driver is tricky. Even this list is not complete en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_screw_drives . I generally look for "Hammer Through" screwdrivers as before trying to undo any screw on solid metal part I settle driver into the slot with suitable judged hammer blow. Another trick uncooperative screws is to use a tiny amount grinding paste on the tip of the screwdriver to give more grip , I believe there is a specialist product for this use called "Screw Grip" or "Screw Grab" or "Ez-Grip" but I have no experience of it.

For brake drum and disc retainer screws an other solid screws on of these should be in every too drawer.

I had an aircraft from 1997 to 2017 and the mechanics were the ones who convinced me to use the black tipped phillips head screwdrivers. They actually made fun of me for using an old Craftsman (they were letting me remove inspection panels). For the screws I had already butchered, they had me put valve grinding compound on the screwdriver tip to get a grip, then discard the screws after removal. I think we only ended up drilling out one or two. It was pretty humbling to be taught about screw removal. I've used valve grinding compound on valves exactly once but too many times to count on screws.

"Hammer Through" aka "Strike-Thru" screwdrivers are the weapon of choice as you can settle the driver into the head of the screw with a couple of suitably judged taps.



For the heavy duty jobs such as brake drum screws




There are a couple of other options the quick and dirty one is use a little grinding paste on the tip to increase friction. there are also commercial products "Ez-Grip" , "Screwgrab" "Gettagrip" and others but I have never tried these.

Nice list.it is very useful for beginner

I’ve been driving for quite long time already and see the necessity of an adequate software for car testing; this one play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.motordata.obd is really worth its money.

I looked at the app and wasn't that impressed , there are good OBD2 apps out there such as my favourite OBD Car Doctor Pro and the most widely used Ian Hawkins Torque. However you much want to consider a hand held Scantool from the 20$ to 70,$ price range from Autel , Launch or Foxwell. At the top end of this price band is the Autel AL539 or AL539b which are really good useful tools and simple to use.

Please let me know I am not the only one who need one of these.

They can save you to much time even in diagnostics.

You are correct sir, every day I need my magnet!

This one can easily be bent any direction and is surprisingly resistant to breakage even after repeated bending. It will break eventually, but that's what the lifetime guarantee is for.

IF you can find a budget scan tool with freezer frame data this can give you some insight into current conditions when the vehicle set the code so that's a plus as it helps a little more.

Another item that's not basic but geared towards the guy who wants to keep things minimal, less stuff to carry.. Check out this 2 channel high speed Bluetooth with graphing capabilities Multimeter.

You can look at it here,

shop.curienllc.com/

You can watch a video by the rustbelt mechanic on YouTube here as well,

It's one of his nifty tools of the week series. A little spendy but if you use it for graphing, etc then you should be good as they're claiming high speeds for the graphing/sampling on it.

Watch his review, check the Curien website out and decide for yourself and go from there.

There's also a nice breakout box in the video. Don't waste your money on the Matco backprobe set unless you anticipate breaking a probe and you see the Matco guy at least every 2-3 weeks as the backprobe set is just a knock off version of the tool aid SG 23500 set they sell on Amazon. Maybe one of the mods reading this could drop a link in my message or after and maybe somehow link it thru Paul's Amazon store as I don't know if he has it but if he can add it as a affiliate link then I think we can support him and the channel for the same price which is still less than the Matco versions.

In the video he also shows the test lead set similar to one sold by www.aeswave.com which I think Paul has a link to also. To sit in the video is meant to be sold with the Bluetooth multimeter. I have the kit from AES wave so I opted not to get the shit in the video.

Dtnel wrote: A little spendy but if you use it for graphing, etc then you should be good as they're claiming high speeds for the graphing/sampling on it.

That claim doesn't match the sawtooth waveform that was generated when he switched the lights on and off. Anything "high speed" would've produced a square wave. That sawtooth looked like an averaged reading transmitted about once per second, which is really slow. The bar graph on my Fluke DMMs updates 40 times per second IIRC.

Let me introduce you to my all-time favorite tool. The Husky cordless ratchet. www.homedepot.com/p/Husky-3-8-in-Drive-1...t-H38CPRAT/305713305 It has an integrated battery, which makes it very small. I am not entirely positive of this, but it could even be smaller than the tiny Milwaukee.

I use it with my Powerbuilt ultra-lowprofile 3/8" sockets. These sockets go from 8mm to 18mm. A 3/8" drive 8mm socket is VERY nice to have when dealing with hose clamps. My power ratchet makes their removal instant. You need low profile sockets. They are specialty tools that can be hard to find. This is my exact set. Look for something similar. www.overstock.com/Home-Garden/Powerbuilt...5864381/product.html

At only $89, it is cheaper than Harbor Freight! You can pick it up at any Home Depot. The battery is serviceable after its end of life as it's only 3 18650 cells.

If you are just getting started and spending $90 on an excellent ratchet is too hard, this is a decent alternative: www.homedepot.com/p/Stanley-3-8-in-Drive...het-89-962/203740742 I had two of them stolen and I own a 3rd one now. It's the manual version of the ratchet I recommended above. This used to be my all-time favorite tool.

Another indispensable tool is the serpentine belt removal tool. It happens to also be a 3/8" drive anvil at the end of a long flat bar and a 1/2" drive anvil at the end of an adjustable 6" flat bar. If you don't have this, you will have a hard time reaching alternators. I use it a lot when working in confined spaces. Removing an alternator often makes the job accessing relevant sensors much easier. The best one of these is actually the rental from O'Reilly because it comes in a nice case. The cheapest would be from Harbor Freight. I use this thing on almost every car.

wiseleo wrote: You need low profile sockets. They are specialty tools that can be hard to find. This is my exact set. Look for something similar. www.overstock.com/Home-Garden/Powerbuilt...5864381/product.html

Just a question of curiosity... Why do I *need* low profile sockets? In 20 years, I've never been in a situation where I thought "I need a low profile socket". Honest question... Where would they be more useful than a regular socket?