Impact drivers

I thought this was going to be a thread about Volvo parking.

Press it against a hard surface and you'll see the head trying to rotate in whichever direction it's set for.

I usually apply a little torque just to take up any slack. Don't hold it too tightly though - and wear thick gloves!

Biggest one you've got, is my suggestion, but I'm not a nengineer.

You will see when you put a bit/socket on and push the thing against something hard holding the driver body.

I normally push the body down before hitting it, so that nearly all the energy from the strike is transferred, not used to just move the body so far.

Something in between! A lighter hammer is easier to use than a lump hammer, and if you're removing screws from an aluminium casting, for instance, there's less chance of driving the whole lot through the metal with a huge blow!

If you take one of these things apart, you will see it's rather crude, there's just a dog on the driven bit which engages in a slot in the comparatively massive "handle". When you whack the end, the inertia of the "handle" resists turning, and the bit turns (a small amount) as well as being pushed into the screw or whatever.

Shurely French parking?

You have to preset it for the direction you wish it to rotate. L or R With the bit or socket held rigid, the handle part, can be pushed and rotated in either direction. To unscrew, you'd push and rotate it anticlockwise. Position 'L', and hold it in that position, whilst you hit it.

Depends on what you wish to screw or unsrew. A solid chassis nut, a big hammer. Smaller screw, smaller hammer or a lighter tap with the big one. Mike.

Lump hammer. Bigger the better. You can hit it all day with a claw hammer sized one and nothing will happen.

Not so. Slotted, crosshead, are torx screws, are often too tight to keep enough pressure on the tip, with a hand driver, to prevent them slipping and damaging the drive part of the screw. An impact driver doesn't need hitting with a lump hammer to free such screws. In fact using a heavy hammer to loosen, say the screws on a door catch, which can be very tight, could result in damage to the door pillar. IME an ordinary 1/2 lb hammer is quite heavy enough to loosen such screws. Mike.

TIP - Whatever hammer you use, hold the impact driver so that your thumb is pointing towards the car, not towards the hammer. This way, when you miss, you'll hit the fleshy part of your hand, not the knuckles of your thumb. It hurts far less.

Trust me, I know:-((

Steve

Oops! Meant to say :-

Mike.

There's a school of motoring called Impact in the Bournemouth area. I've always considered it a little ill-advised.

Steve

The message from "shazzbat" contains these words:

Started round Southall. Very sucessful - and not a name you'll forget in a hurry.

The one that worried me more was in Greys Inn Road "Escuolo Guido Italiano".

I think that comes under the heading of "Use the right size tip".

more often than not for catch/hinge screws you can just use the ID as a big screwdriver these days I'm getting lazy and just use the air impact kit Derek

Even with the correct sized tip. The tighter the screw, the more pressure is req'd to stop a screwdriver from slipping. Often I can put enough pressure on the screwdriver to avoid it slipping, but then the screw is so tight I still can't turn it. Using an impact driver will usually turn the tightest screw, and avoid damaging it, but it doesn't need the use of a lump hammer to achieve that. Mike.

Thats part of the idea of an impact driver...

Yes it does unless you want to have to bray holy hell out of it.

McLaren

All I can say is that it works for me, and I use my ID almost on a daily basis, doing machine maintenance. Mike.

Thanks for all the info - I'll bear it in mind next time I'm using it!

Cheers,

Iain

Good point. I don't know what I did before I bought an air kit.