What are SAE sockets used for?

[ImportTuner]

I was just wondering, what are SAE sockets used for these days, other than working on old classic cars, since most new vehicles use metric?

 

[OctaneMotorsports]

I was just wondering, what are SAE sockets used for these days, other than working on old classic cars, since most new vehicles use metric?

I work with a lot of lawn equipment as well as cars, race cars, motorcycles etc. A lot of the new lawn equipment is still SAE. Let's not forget Harley Davidson motorcycles.

 

[dxdexter]

Older cars, after market bolts and hardware, structural steel connections, small engines, filling up a tool box, and collecting dust ; just off the top of my head. I use them quite frequently , but most of the equipment I work on was not built yesterday .

 

[Uncle Buck]

I still wrench primarily in standard, however I am finding myself working out of my metric box with increasing frequency. I began buying metric some years back for when the time came that metric would be most of what I needed, long before I needed it.

I wish metric never would have come along cause I will probably always be tooled more heavily toward standard fasteners and I will never have the funds to match the metric range to what I have in standard.

 

[PAToyota]

Metric for the Toyota, Saab, and Kawasaki as well as half the fasteners on the Chevy. SAE for the other half of the Chevy, the Bobcat, wood and metal working equipment, and other stuff around the property. And if I buy bolts for a project I generally still go for SAE over metric for things I'm building.

 

[wythors]

SAE tools are what we use to work on real cars.

 

[chad s]

SAE tools are what we use to work on real cars.

ecactly, I only pull out the metric stuff when working on something that requires it around the house. I use mostly standard.

 

[Junkman]

What is Metric????? Never heard of it.... I know SAE, USS, but never heard of Metric......

 

[Freejack]

Then there was that lovely period in the mid-eighties were alot of US cars, especially GMs, had a combination of both metric and SAE, and sometimes in the most frustrating manner. I remember just tensioning the A/C belt on an Pontiac Sunbird. 4 fastners, 3 different sizes with both SAE and metric...

Jake

 

[george4]

Then there was that lovely period in the mid-eighties were alot of US cars, especially GMs, had a combination of both metric and SAE, and sometimes in the most frustrating manner. I remember just tensioning the A/C belt on an Pontiac Sunbird. 4 fastners, 3 different sizes with both SAE and metric...

Jake

Absolutely. My stock 89 corvette is pretty random between SAE and Metric with some male and female torx thrown in.

 

[dxdexter]

I was just wondering, what are SAE sockets used for these days, other than working on old classic cars, since most new vehicles use metric?

They are also good for driving seals and pressing in and out U-Joints and bearings.

 

[eschoendorff]

I think that I am the only one here who wishes that everything would be metric. If you think about it, the entire metric system makes much more sense.

I would rather use my metric stuff... and I tend to use it more in daily life.

 

[ColdDuckTime]

I was just wondering, what are SAE sockets used for these days, other than working on old classic cars, since most new vehicles use metric?

You'll have to remind me again what size those square holes in a socket are.

 

[jimvannoy]

I remember sometime back in the 70's when I was in school and they had that big push to go metric. We learned the metric system for a year or two then went back to "normal". I guess it flopped. Pretty much everything I work on is SAE but I mostly work on stuff 60's and older.

 

[Junkman]

I think that I am the only one here who wishes that everything would be metric. If you think about it, the entire metric system makes much more sense.

I would rather use my metric stuff... and I tend to use it more in daily life.

The problem of choice is what you used most growing up. I was used to both SAE and USS fasteners, and I could tell at a glance as to what fractional size socket or wrench I needed. I am certain that people that are used to working on cars with Metric fasteners can do the same thing today. Personally, I don't like Metric because I can't visually identify the different sizes that accurately. Back in the 1960's & 1970's, Allen Head socket screws were popular.... today it is Torx head that is popular. What it will be in 10 years, none of us know, but my bet is that there will be another new standard that will take hold. It was said in the 1970's that if the US car manufacturers were to go to Metric, that they would be embraced the world over. It isn't the fastener that people care about, but the overall reliability of the vehicle. I can remember in the 1960's having to buy tools just to repair an Opel. I could only buy the parts from the local Buick / Opel dealer, and the parts were double what a similar part cost for the Buick. Parts were more expensive, and you needed special tools to fix the car. Opel's were not well accepted by the general public, because the only people that would repair them were the dealers. That was the way it was with all import cars. Today, I doubt that there is a mechanic that doesn't own Metric tools. The only reason that Metric became the standard is because a car manufactured in one European Country could be sold and fixed in any other European Country. At one time, fractional fasteners were the Standard the World over.... How times have changed. I will say that the Metric method of sizes does make sense, going up in increments of 1, with the exception of 5 & 5.5, however, our method of dollars and cents also based on the same counting concept, but the European, and Asian countries still haven't embraced it. They have Yen's and Euros, which make no sense to me... Guess that is why I don't need a Passport......

 

[Cashed]

I haven't used a SAE socket in probably 6-8 months. They are put to the side out of the way in my tool box. I also only have 5 or 6 SAE wrenches.

 

[SpiderGearsMan]

until 02 , the gen 1 small block chevy was about 90% standard , 1955 architecture ,hd truck and school buses are standard


when I worked at toyota , there was guys with only 8,10,12,14,17 mm that toyota used , cheap skates

 

[Uncle Buck]

I think that I am the only one here who wishes that everything would be metric. If you think about it, the entire metric system makes much more sense.

I would rather use my metric stuff... and I tend to use it more in daily life.

I know it would not hurt my feeling one bit if metric just went away. Besides that when you are looking at tools in hock shops, garage sales and the like there is always a much better selection of quality tools to be found in standard. I have prolly bought a third of my tools this way. I am just not a metric fan.

 

[-lecroix-]

Real cars are built with SAE fasteners.

 

[Uncle Buck]

Real cars are built with SAE fasteners.

The problem is there are getting to be lesser, and lesser of em!

 

[jimmycrackcorn]

The Jeep line still use SAE fasteners, the bell housing bolts are 5/8 and 9/16. Pan bolts are 1/2, you mostly find them in the power train. But the rest are mostly metric.

 

[PAToyota]

Then there was that lovely period in the mid-eighties were alot of US cars, especially GMs, had a combination of both metric and SAE, and sometimes in the most frustrating manner.

Not just mid-eighties as that is the way my '93 Chevy is... And most frustrating... Two of the three fasteners on something are standard and the other one is metric...

I remember sometime back in the 70's when I was in school and they had that big push to go metric. We learned the metric system for a year or two then went back to "normal".

Yep, seventh grade for me. I remember getting a month into eighth grade and looking around like "Where did the metric stuff go?" Seventh grade they were all into teaching us it and then it totally disappeared again.

But, with the "world economy" I'm seeing it a lot more. Building products for one - due to the industry that I'm in. More and more things are in centimeters and millimeters.

 

[v8garage]

I was just wondering, what are SAE sockets used for these days, other than working on old classic cars, since most new vehicles use metric?

Nuclear Power Plants: I work on nuclear power plants all over the country and the overwhelming majority of the equipment in them uses SAE size bolts etc. There are several reasons for this, first most of these plants were designed and built in the '60's and 70's and so most of the equipment is from that era except for some exceptions such as some equipment imported from Germany etc. Also the US industrial equipment manufacturers have not readily taken to the metric system. I guess a lot of the reason for this is that they still have to make replacement equipment for older plants and factories and they don't want to retool and make two sets of equipment. Personally I very seldom use metric either professionally or personally. I use SAE wrenches at work and also on my vintage vehicles and antique tractors. I have used metric one time this year to change the alternator on my wifes Nissan.

 

[Coach James]

Even my 2005 Grand Caravan has a mix. I did a brake job last month and the caliper brackets were held on by bolts with 13/16 heads while the calipers were held on by bolts that took a 7mm hex bit.

Coach

 

[-lecroix-]

The problem is there are getting to be lesser, and lesser of em!

Roger that!

 

[kartracer55]

Spark plugs. Ive changed tons of spark plugs and up until a few weeks ago I had no idea they even made metric spark plug sockets. Plus larger fasteners. The larger the hex the less critical a tight fit is so you can use an SAE socket, or so Ive found anyway.

 

[MarkH]

Most of the farm implements, vs the powered machines which are a mix.

 

[Uncle Buck]

[QUOTE\] Plus larger fasteners. The larger the hex the less critical a tight fit is so you can use an SAE socket, or so Ive found anyway.[/QUOTE]

Years ago when I did not have many tools that was exactly what I did. I had a 3/8 set that went up to what I would call the dual fit break point 25-28mm or something of the like. Fortunately I would not have to do that now.

 

[SpiderGearsMan]

a good excuse for a big toolbox
didn't Hitler use the Metric system ??

 

[transammanv8]

Aircraft. I work for Bell Helicopter and have yet to see a single metric fastener in my 4 years in aviation (fixed wing and rotorcraft). Every new helicopter I work on is completely SAE. In fact, I don't have anything metric in my box, lol.

 

[Major Ramifications]

Some new vehicles still have plenty of SAE fasteners, especially on the engines.

 

[Uncle Buck]

Some new vehicles still have plenty of SAE fasteners, especially on the engines.

Yes, thank god they do..... DAMNED METRIC ****.......grumbling old fart says as he paddles out of the room!

 

[ImportTuner]

Some new vehicles still have plenty of SAE fasteners, especially on the engines.

Only on American cars ... and then they mixed in metrics ... which adds to the confusion ...

 

[walt111]

Real equipment. Metric s&cks. Nobody asked me about making things metric, then again nobody ask me about anything. USE SAE.
wrench

 

[Charles (in GA)]

Aircraft. I work for Bell Helicopter and have yet to see a single metric fastener in my 4 years in aviation (fixed wing and rotorcraft). Every new helicopter I work on is completely SAE. In fact, I don't have anything metric in my box, lol.

I was going to throw that in too (I'm an airline mechanic) but didn't. American Eurocopter, formerly Aerospatiale and MBB, but they merged to form AE, use all metric. I used to mechanic on an Aerospatiale Dauphine II in the mid to later '80's and it was completely metric, the French have a complete metric aircraft hardware standard. However, I worked on a French built Falcon Jet and it was all fractional but the components themselves frequently were metric, but attached with fractional. The A310 Airbus's I worked on also were that way, fractional with components being metric.internally.

But Boeing, even with all the European and Japanese made components, is all fractional.

Charles

 

[MAD]

I worked on a French built Falcon Jet and it was all fractional but the components themselves frequently were metric, but attached with fractional. The A310 Airbus's I worked on also were that way, fractional with components being metric.internally.

Charles

I believe the brake lines on my Triumph TR6 are the same way- Fractional "AF" wrench fittings with metric threads. Most of the rest of the fasteners on the car are UNF (SAE) fine thread with standard fractional hex heads. Now if I could only catch up with the repairs on the metric daily drivers, maybe I could use my SAE sized wrenches to actually work on the TR6. I did get to use my SAE sockets recently for the carriage bolts on a giant play structure and swing set I bought off Craig's list for my daughter. And mounting the motor and tensioning the belt on the air compressor I recently cobbled together would have been very difficult without my SAE Indestro offset box wrenches.

 

[ColdDuckTime]

I think the only answer is the Saemetric standard. Name the sizes after the letters of the alphabet and include every shipped size of fastener head. After 'Z' comes 'AA', etc.

You could go out and buy the Snap On Alphabametric socket set with 100 fasteners for only $2000.

 

[MAD]

I have 3/8" and 1/2" drive sockets in the following sizes 15/32, 19/32, 21/32, and 25/32 plus offset box wrenches in 19/32 and 25/32. I do not recall ever using these sizes other than to pound the socket onto a rounded off bolt with a hammer. Just out of curiosity I would be interested in knowing where these sizes are used. I have run across fasteners with 11/32" and smaller wrench sized heads that were a /32" denomination but I can't remember ever using the larger ones

 

[Major Ramifications]

In my past jobs as a machine designer, every piece of industrial equipment we built used SAE fasteners. The only time we specified metric stuff is if it was custom built for the european market.
I guess that is why so many American engines use SAE fasteners, the basic components (blocks, heads) have been around for a while, they just get updated to add a new boss here (for transverse mounting, for instance) or a new dealie there. But many of the accessories (alternator, etc) are foreign, so they use metric fassteners.

I agree that the metric system is far superior to ours, but I still favor SAE fasteners and tools. It is just what I grew up with.
Whenever I build anything, I don't even consider metric fasteners. Not only do they not occur to me, but they cost more.

 

[OctaneMotorsports]

I think that I am the only one here who wishes that everything would be metric. If you think about it, the entire metric system makes much more sense.

I would rather use my metric stuff... and I tend to use it more in daily life.

I'm with you, man. I use a mixture of both standard in metric when I talk and when I think. I live in Canada so I use kilometers for speed and distance, and I also use metric for smaller measurements (millimeters). Otherwise I use standard (inches, feet, pounds, etc.). Kind of strange considering I was raised in Canada (metric) in a period where all we were force-fed from our teachers was metric...I'm only fifteen.

As far as fasteners, I absolutely prefer metric. Call it inexperience with standard, but if I put a 12mm socket on a bolt and it's slightly too small it's a lot easier to grab the next size up (13mm) rather than figuring out what the next size up in standard is (7/16" to 1/2" in this case). That said, for projects where I'm building something, I usually get standard hardware simply because there is usually a better selection, it's less expensive, and it gives me a chance to wipe the dust off my standard tools and use them so their purchase feels worthwhile