This time we have tons of tools. One of the first things that we really love in the repair shop is this extension for a ratchet. You put the ratchet-just plug it in to one end of it, the socket on the other end. And the two ends are connected by a chain inside. So this turns this, and you can put it at whatever angle you want. Really clever.

Alright, here: lots of times when you’re working in close quarters, you may need something to get you away from the screw or bolt; this unit has two ends. up here we can put in a screwdriver bit, down here we can put on a quarter inch socket, or anything that fits a quarter inch. And both ends of this are flexible. But the big thing is that it gives you a long reach, so that you can get down into close quarters.

Alright, now if you do any electrical work at all, you’ll love this: this is a tool that, well, it holds the wires that you’re going to solder. See these are spring loaded, you just push up on them, put the wire in there, let it clamp down, and it holds them together so that you can solder without things falling apart.

Speaking of wires, you know if you do any electrical work, you’re certainly going to want something to strip wires. This tool goes onto the wire like that…you squeeze it, and it strips the wire. Simply pull the end off with your thumb nail after it’s removed it.

Alright now, wiring: you’re always going to be using tie wraps. Well that makes things look neat, but here’s something that, well, it’ll make your job look a lot neater: well, when you pull them tight, you can never get them tight enough. Well this tool, what it does is it slides over the tie wrap, and you pull  on it like so, and it tightens the tie wrap around whatever you’re working on. Makes it a lot neater.

And finally, over here. If you’ve ever done any work on a late model car, one thing you’ve certainly encountered are these miserable clips that hold things together. They have a plunger in the center, that gets pushed down to expand the bottom of it to hold things in place. But trying to get those out? Well that can be a nightmare. So here we have a set of three tools. These come from KD. And they’re designed specifically for different types of clips like these. And what they do is they have special ends on them, different ones for different clips, that fit down under that center piece so you can pull it up.

Tools can make a huge difference in your efficiency, so you might want to look into these if they apply to the things you do. And if you have a question or a comment, drop me a line right here at MotorWeek.