Fractional Inch Tools - Who Needs 'Em?

[Murphy4570]

Re: Fractional Inch Tools - Who Need 'Em?

I literally just used a 9/16" socket on waterpump bolts on a 2002 Blazer earlier today.


So yes, you still need standard sockets and wrenches.

 

[warmpancakes]

Re: Fractional Inch Tools - Who Need 'Em?

I literally just used a 9/16" socket on waterpump bolts on a 2002 Blazer earlier today.


So yes, you still need standard sockets and wrenches.

4.3 swapped to metric in late 90s soundslike you had a rounded bolt

 

[Danglerb]

Re: Fractional Inch Tools - Who Need 'Em?

My friend still uses Whitworth, but my view is lesser use of SAE just makes them easier to collect, and has no effect on me wanting to buy them. OTOH I do stick to the basic stuff.

 

[gm54210]

Re: Fractional Inch Tools - Who Need 'Em?

I am shocked to learn that airplanes are all SAE. My former government coworkers now have to specify stuff like conduit sizes in their millimeter equivalents. Stupid. I would have thought Uncle Sam would have pushed the aircraft industry to metric through their military influence.

Aircraft being SAE threw me as well - learned something new. And I remember having to spec "soft metric" as well - 2' x 2' ceiling panels are 610mm x 610mm for the government. Thinking from standard to metric isn't as hard as the other way around though!

 

[BFHtime]

Re: Fractional Inch Tools - Who Need 'Em?

High performance parts. After market parts for motor vehicles. Brass fittings, pipe fittings, and aluminum fittings can be standard. Some older power tools.

 

[Jrussell86]

Obviously you don't own a Harley Davidson lol. Also American made lawn mowers, heavy equipment, industrial maintenance,and restoring pretty much anything old.

 

[wafrederick]

Chrysler uses SAE bellhousing bolts for the 4.7,3.7 and the 5.7 hemi engines,4 3/8 coarse and two 7/16 coarse bolts.The 4.3s,went to metric bellhousing and starter bolts starting in 2000.Includes the engine mounts also.Book shows the 2000 to 2004 4.3s differant and are not.Only differances are the bellhousing and starter bolts are metric and do fit 1996 to 1999.The 4.3 is mostly SAE with some metric.I hate the metric system myself,5 differant thread pitches with metric fastners vs 2 thread pitches with SAE called coarse and fine.

 

[Murphy4570]

Re: Fractional Inch Tools - Who Need 'Em?

4.3 swapped to metric in late 90s soundslike you had a rounded bolt

Tell that to GM. The bolts were grade 5 SAE, and were marked as such. The three bolts that hold the alternator bracket to the cylinder head were also standard. None looked like they had ever been touched before, and everything in there looked original.

I was using a 15mm at first, and wondering why it was loose. Damn GM.

 

[Beerman]

I work for the phone co. and our stuff is fractional. 1/2 and 7/16 mostly.

Beerman

 

[white91formula]

The only thing I use them on anymore is my snowmobile... arctic cat decided it was a good idea to make the sled sae and all of the motor metric.

Other than that just metric on my truck and motorcycles. I can't remember the last time I bought a sae tool.

 

[heavyop]

I work in natural gas compression. Cat and Waukesha engines and Ariel, Ajax, and Gemeni compressors use only SAE. Came across a turbine starter that had 3 metric 12pt. bolts on it a few years ago. I only keep one set of metric wrenches on my truck for that one odd item I see once every five years

 

[Dynamic86]

Up in alberta canada at a lumber mill we are still about 95% sae. I don't even have full size metric wrenches at work. At home everything is metric.

 

[mtnwalton]

Re: Fractional Inch Tools - Who Need 'Em?

Heavy equipment, manufacturing equipment and machines, power plants, water treatment plants, railroads, farming, chemical plants, and hundreds and hundreds more.

LOTS of high $$$ equipment that affect you everyday use them.

You just can't see beyond the driveway and your car in it.

I guess a 70's muscle car is definately not in your future, not that I wouldn't have guessed that already.

LOLZ.

There is still plenty of SAE being used in world markets of large industrial equipment. I was told by an architectural drawing teacher that metric would soon be dominant. That was about 1968. What size ratchets drive metric sockets? fractional

 

[928'er]

Can't believe that aviation is still fractional - the rest of the world moved on long ago. Must be a function of America's post WWII ********** of the aircraft industry and the need for rationalization of parts. If it's all fractional, at least you know what you need - even if it's an antiquated system....

The U.S. Metric Conversion Act of 1975 was killed by Ronnie Redcheek's Administration in 1982 and, consequently, the US remains one of three countries (along with Burma and Liberia) not to have adopted the metric system.

Typical of the American car industry to do things half assed - mixing fractional and metric fasteners.

 

[BK13]

Most of my wrench turning is on my '84 CJ, so it's nearly if not all SAE, my F150 is a maddening blend of both inch and metric, with some Torx thrown in to push you over the edge.

 

[BK13]

Re: Fractional Inch Tools - Who Need 'Em?

What size ratchets drive metric sockets? fractional

Not Hazet! 6.3mm, 10mm, and 12.5mm drive.

 

[Kracin]

Re: Fractional Inch Tools - Who Need 'Em?

I work on industrial machinery and use SAE and metric. SAE is not dead......yet.

same here.

all fasteners we stock are sae, metric are hard to come by unless it was a foreign machine brought in, and eventually you get a ton of ruined metric because some guy was too lazy to grab his metric stuff and just used pliers or standard.

 

[Tool504]

I'm an auto technician for a major rental car company so I only work on vehicles from the current model year or previous model year, as they sell the purchased vehicles or turn in the leased vehicles before they get old or too high of mileage. I very rarely reach for an SAE socket or wrench. Heck, I even stopped buying new SAE tools. 99.9% of what I use is metric. We perform full warranty repairs (just like a dealership) on Fords, GM, Chrysler/Dodge, Toyota, and Nissan. We also repair Honda, Hyundai/Kia, Mercedes Benz, VW, Mazda if the vehicle has exceeded the warranty mileage or if the needed repair is not covered under warranty for whatever reason.