Socket Question for the pros

[Shoreline_]

Or those in the know -

For semi rounded 12 point fasteners like a ferry screw, do you think a spline socket works better for removing? I gotta get something. Sick of these jeep hub bolts and my poor danaher 12 point socket from when I was 17 taking the abuse to remove it. I have turbo sockets but I'm hoping the spline might work and save the bolt. I only have spline ratcheting wrenches and these screws will win that screw vs pawl fight.

 

[gizardlizard]

If they’re semi rounded already, sounds like they’re junk to me and should be replaced anyway. Pound on your turbo socket and go to town

 

[2ndGearRubber]

I'll hammer a 1/2 on them. Heat the wheel bearing flange up cherry red.

 

[Shoreline_]

You'd be amaze at what you eat in this business because the customer doesn't wanna spend 30 bucks for new bolts

 

[Wrench97]

Turbo sockets and replace them while you can still get them out.

 

[dchawk81]

You'd be amaze at what you eat in this business because the customer doesn't wanna spend 30 bucks for new bolts

Don't give them a choice. Put it on the bill. It's not your fault that their hardware is sketchy.

 

[plinker]

IME spline can remove slightly rounded stuff, though it isnt always very good at it. If spline drive does the rounding no bueno. On 6pt stuff, the Matco non slips or the Astro flank bite work well. For 12pt, the spline is worth a shot to try, If they come out, going back in may be an issue. But bolts are cheap and time spent futzing with questionable hardware is annoying. Even with a turbo socket Jeep hub bolts arent fun, still can round out and need a couple tries and socket sizes from what I've run into.

 

[Shoreline_]

Don't give them a choice. Put it on the bill. It's not your fault that their hardware is sketchy.

Ehhh maybe if we were the only shop in town. Margins are tight when there's shops on both sides of you and all down the street. People are stingy.

 

[KnurledNut]

If yours are 13mm, see if you can get a 1/2 wrench (not socket) on it and beat it with a hammer.
If you replace them, make sure whatever bolts you use have the same tensile strength.

 

[nadogail]

The last Jeep I worked on was a Ford built GPW. American tools from Sears worked just fine.

 

[dchawk81]

Ehhh maybe if we were the only shop in town. Margins are tight when there's shops on both sides of you and all down the street. People are stingy.

Death by a thousand cuts then.

 

[dchawk81]

Ehhh maybe if we were the only shop in town. Margins are tight when there's shops on both sides of you and all down the street. People are stingy.

Are you in business solely on price? Shops around here are busy as hell, and there are a lot of them.

 

[WWheeler]

If you are talking about the 12 pt bolts that hold hubs on a Dana Jeep axle they don't fight me too much where I live now, though I haven't seen one in 10 yrs or more. When I lived where everything was a rust heap I don't remember it being all that much different, just we just had to heat them up first and made sure to always have new bolts to go with the new hubs, so kind of like everything else we worked on, and I'm still turning almost all of the same 80s-90s-ish Craftsman sockets now as I was back then, and they aren't anything better than countless consumer-grade sockets out nowadays by most well-known brands.

 

[DAustin]

Just Enough Essential Parts. = Jeep

 

[2ndGearRubber]

Ehhh maybe if we were the only shop in town. Margins are tight when there's shops on both sides of you and all down the street. People are stingy.

Most autoparts stores will stock the dorman replacement hardware, it's like $20 for the set. Much cheaper than OEM and has a regular 6 point head.


That's what's so stupid about those bolts. Plenty of room for a 15 or 16mm head, 12 point 13mm instead so it can rot into nothing.