Automotive electrical work.

How many people ran for cover? Even among tech-savvy Toolmongers, electrical work can be a big, hairy monster, partially due to the confusing nature of electrical diagnosis, and partially due to the wide variety of tools needed to do the work properly. Fortunately, one of the most common styles is pretty cheap.

Mac Tools retails a crimper designed to properly attach Weatherpack connectors, but there’s a nice bonus. Many different terminals can be secured with this crimper, even if they aren’t designed for it. Deutsch and Yazaki terminals work nicely in Weatherpack jaws, which isn’t a bad trifecta for $35. Unless you’re a pretty neurotic type-A personality, this will do nicely for occasional repairs. Anyone who’s used one of these before will probably note that this plier-style crimper isn’t as precise as a torque-sensing type, but careful use will navigate nicely around those issues.

Weatherpack Crimper [Mac Tools]

For every nut, bolt, and fastener on your car or truck, the factory probably recommends a specific amount of torque to tighten it down to.  Mac makes two models of adjustable 1/4″ torque screwdrivers — the TSM4-22 and the TSM16-88 — that measure torque from 4 to 22 in./lbs and from 16 to 88 in./lbs respectively.  With these little guys you can torque down even delicate fasteners without winging it.

A window on the driver’s handle shows the amount of torque with an accuracy of ± 6%.  You adjust the screwdriver to the desired torque setting with an allen wrench — once you’ve applied the desired amount of torque, the driver disengages.  Contact a Mac dealer for prices and availability.

Find A Local Dealer [Mac Tools]

Mac Tools, embracing its role as a NASCAR sponsor, just released a limited-edition Hendrick Motorsports tool box set with racing logos and graphics on the door lids. The set consists of a cart and an MB1000A base box with a newly configured top hutch for added storage — they both feature Casey Mears in the No. 5 Carquest/Kellogg’s Chevrolet; Jeff Gordon in the No. 24 DuPont Chevrolet; and Dale Earnhardt Jr. in the No. 88 AMP/National Guard Chevrolet.

For the diehard NASCAR fan, this is hotness on casters.  But if you just want a sturdy place to keep your tools, or if you’re satisfied with the current setup in your shop that already has 300 logo stickers plastered all over it — you might feel the need to skip this one.  If not, you can call it in and have a truck drop it right at your shop’s door.

Mac Tools [Corporate Site]

When you don’t want to lug your entire toolbox out of the garage just to work on your neighbor’s lawnmower, you need something like the Macsimizer Utility Cart from MAC. It features a deep well up top for sockets and a tray up top that slides open for more tool access — plus three drawers, screwdriver storage, and space on the bottom for bigger items.

I loaded up my cart with screwdrivers, sockets, wrenches, my most-used air tools, and some other miscellaneous stuff — which means that anytime I want to work on something outdoors, I just wheel out the cart and get after it.

For pricing, you’ll need to visit your local MAC distributor. Or, if you don’t want to pay MAC prices, there are cheap-ass alternatives.

Macsimizer Utility Cart [Mac Tools]

Auto techs who’ve heard the above from customers, rejoice! This week Mac Tools announced a car data recorder that plugs into vehicles’ OBDII data plug and records the entire OBDII data set in a continuous 24-hour loop. Jack this sucker in, send the customer out for a drive, and when they come back you’ve got software access to everything the car knows about the issue.

Mac says this will help diagnose problems that aren’t around long enough to illuminate the check engine light — the bane of the pro tech crowd.

To analyze the data, Mac points buyers to the OEM’s PC-based client software package, which is available for free download. Our quick glance at the software showed some pretty handy screens, including the ability to graph data over time.

Parents take note: speed is one of the data types this device records. You could totally use this to bust your 16-year-old with a speed fetish. As always, you’ll need to contact your local truck-based Mac distributor for pricing and details.

MAC Tools is partnering with Challenger Lifts to produce a range of “professional grade” two-post lifts priced just right for newly-opening shops — and low enough to tempt even an amateur like me.

Key features include three-stage front arms (which’ll help with asymmetric lifting — where you need one arm to be significantly longer than the other), rubber foot pads (to protect undercoatings), a single-point mechanical lock release system (so you don’t have to release each post separately), and a padded overhead shut-off (so you can’t knock a hole in the ceiling and trash your vehicle).

For those who’d rather utilize a four-post system, MAC will offer those as well. For more details, talk to the man on the truck.

It can happen to the best of us: one moment of inattention results in a cross-threaded spark plug hole. You can either install a helicoil and hope for the best, or send it out to have the whole shebang re-tapped. Now you have another option. The Back-Tap can fix that cross-threaded hole from the inside — without pulling the head.

The Back-Tap is a tap with expandable threads and a mandrel to catch errant metal shards. Apply a dab of grease to the mandrel, then place the device in the hole past the damaged threads. As you back it out, the cutters expand out to engage the undamaged threads, then gently reshape the damaged ones. The greased mandrel keeps metal filings from ending up in the cylinder.

The result: a task that could potentially take days and cost hundreds of dollars is done in minutes for less than a hundred bucks.

MAC offers a three-piece kit that includes a 10mm, 12mm, and 14mm Back-Tap for $90. You can buy Individual taps from various sources for about $50 each.

Back-Tap [Official Page]
Back-Tap Kit [MacTools.com]
Street Price [Google Products]
Via Amazon [What's this?]

Body workers know that there are two kinds of dollies: one kind has wheels and moves boxes and the other kind moves sheet metal.  Mac’s new multi-dolly is the latter type, and offers three different faces — adding up to many various curves — in a compact hand-held package.

The big hole in the center is a “finger catch,” which makes the multi-dolly easy to hold in your hand.  It includes a smoothing round face and curve, an awl-type dolly for creating internal conceves by hammering, a flat face with bent curve, an end curve, a spoon curve, and a small curve wedge dolly. 

Obviously this won’t replace your hammer-style dollies, but it would definitely augment them, working in tight spaces and lessening multiple trips to the toolbox.  The multi-dolly will ship in two sizes: mini (the BMD100) and standard (the BMD200).  Contact Mac (or your local truck) for pricing.

Mac announced this week that they, too, will soon ship a 10.8V lithium-ion driver to compete with the industry-first Bosch PS20 and Milwaukee’s recently-launched 12V sub-compact. Mac’s calling theirs a “screwdriver,” though, claiming 90 in-lbs of torque at an unspecified RPM.  (Bosch claims 80 in-lbs at 600 RPM and Milwaukee claims 100 in-lbs at 500 RPM.) 

Standard features include a forward/reverse switch, a 10-position clutch, and an LED work light. The new “screwdriver” will ship in kit form, including a single battery pack, a charger, four two-inch driver bits, all wrapped in a blow-molded case.  We’ll pass on more about pricing — and performance — when we can.

We’re a sucker for specialized tools here at Toolmonger, and MAC Tools sent us information on a really, really specialized tool we thought we’d share with you.  Though we’re poor and have never owned a Mercedes, we hear that adjusting their mirrors is a bitch — they’re T20 tamperproof torx for starters, and they’re the adjustment is buried in a hard-to-reach place. 

Enter MAC’s new “5 Star Mercedes Mirror Tool.”  It’s designed specifically to fit in the cavity in which the German engineers buried the adjuster.

As always, you’ll need to contact your friendly local MAC truck guy for pricing, but if you do a lot of Mercedes work, this might be worth whatever they’re asking for it.

Even shade-tree mechanics own a set of 1/2″ to 3/8″ drive (and visa-versa) adapters, and hard-core tool guys even own a set of universals.  But as anyone who’s used a jointed adapter knows, it’s tough to keep the adapter attached when you’re working it tight spaces — you know, like you always are with universals.  MAC recently released a set with a locking collar that keeps it attached.

It still retains all the swivel action you’ve come to expect from this type of adapter, and it features the same high-polish chrome finish you’ve come to expect from MAC. 

For pricing you’ll need to contact your friendly local distributor — or chase down one of the trucks.  Our guess is that they’re not cheap.

Mac tools announced an addition to their line likely to please the auto-body crowd: a 5″ wet-sanding block with a 14′ supply hose and a valve that allows you to control water flow right at the block.  They’ll also offer larger versions.  As always, check out their website — where it’ll appear soon — for details, or better yet contact your local truck-based distributor.

MAC’s spherical sockets sport a unique shape that grabs 6-sided, 12-sided, splined, Torx, square, and even 50% rounded nuts and bolts — and now MAC is offering them in a 15-piece 1/2″ drive set and a 13-piece 3/8″ drive set as well.

Like other MAC tools, they’re made of chrome molybdenum steel, but these feature MAC’s new “pearl chrome” finish, too.  The 1/2″ drive set includes 3/8″, 7/16″, 1/2″, 9/16″, 5/8″, 11/16″, 3/4″, 13/16″, 7/8″, 1″, 1-1/16″, 1-1/8″, 1-3/16″, and 1-1/4″ sockets while the 3/8″ drive set includes 1/4″, 5/16″, 3/8″, 7/16″, 1/2″, 9/16″, 5/8″, 11/16″, 3/4″, 13/16″, 7/8″, 15/16″, and 1″ sockets — a nice overlap.

As always, these are available directly from MAC or your local MAC tools distributor.

Ever cross-threaded a spark plug?  Trust us, it sucks.  You generally have to heli-coil ‘em since you can’t re-tap it because you risk dropping bits of metal into the engine — until now.  These expandable spark plug socket rethreaders from MAC Tools slip past the damaged threads then expand to engage them, allowing you to “chase” the threads from the bottom up.  Debris comes up and out with the rethreader.

This is most definitely a specialty tool, but like all specialty tools, when you need it, you need it bad.  This could really pull your acorns out of the fire if you (or one of your techs) is a little overzealous installing plugs.

MAC sells ‘em in a three-piece set that fits common sizes — 10 mm, 12 mm, and 14mm — for $90.  They also sell the less-common 18 mm version separately.  You can pick ‘em up online or (of course) via your friendly neighborhood tool truck.

3-Pack Expandable Spark Plug Socket Rethreaders [MAC Tools]

MAC Tools announced today a new line of tamper-proof and five-star socket sets featuring universal joints — a great idea when you consider that these type of fasteners aren’t always found in the mosy easy-to-reach locations.  The line will include a variety of sets to handle Torx, hex, five-star, and even size T8H to T55H tamper-proof socket heads.

MAC claims that the eleven-piece tamper-proof set (pictured) is the industry’s first with universal joints, and though we can’t confirm that, we can’t remember seeing another one, either.

For pricing you’ll need to contact your friendly neighborhood MAC salesman.  They’re not listed on the MAC Tools website yet, but we’ll get back to you when we hear more.

From Comments: One reader found these in the April flyer on the MAC website for $179.99.  (Thanks, Harry!)

If you’ve been thinking about picking up a high-end die grinder, MAC’s offering a pretty nice deal right now: they’ll give you a free standard-duty 1/4″ mini die grinder with the purchase of a heavy-duty angle head mini die grinder for $75.  If you’re actually in need of both tools, that puts ‘em almost down into the Harbor Freight price range.

We came across this in MAC’s February newsletter, so the deal should be good through this month — or until they run out of their “limited quantities.”

Heavy-Duty 1/4″ Angle Head Mini Die Grinder [MAC Tools]
Standard Duty 1/4″ Mini Die Grinder [MAC Tools]

Dazrin writes: “These are the long-reach version of the Craftsman mini-pliers I saw here a couple of weeks ago.  I’ve found them to be much more useful than the mini-pliers themselves.  I own the Craftsman version — that no longer appears to be made — of the tools listed.  These from MAC seem spendy, but Amazon is a great reference.”

These indeed look quite useful, especially for tight automotive dash both inside the dash and under the hood. 

The set consists of five six” pliers: end cutter, bent long nose, diagonal, pointed long nose, and long needle nose.

We couldn’t find the set on MAC’s site — as pretty as the new site is, the search engine leaves a bit to be desired! — but Amazon sells ‘em for $54.  That’s not incredibly pricey compared to Craftsman, especially when you consider this is a 5-piece set.  And if you’re looking for a set on the cheap, Froogle turned up a couple on eBay down in the sub-$40 range.

There’s also a 10-piece set on eBay right now for $110.

Street Pricing [Froogle]
Buy It Now from Amazon [What is this?]

What can we say?  We’re big Foose fans, both for his incredible work and his incredible art.  Some people can draw pretty pictures of cars, but how many of them can actually build the car such that it looks just as crazy as the illustration?  Foose.  That’s about it.

So when we heard about MAC’s Foose-branded special edition tool kit, we had to see it.  And see it we did.  Wow.  We’re totally blown away.  So many celebrity collectors’ kits are just completely impractical; They’re either designed in such a way that the prettiness wears off if you use them or they’re full of tools for which you have no need whatsoever.  While it’d have been so easy for MAC to just slap Foose’s hot-item name and graphics on a kit and shove it out the door, they really put some time into selecting the tools.

Let’s get that out of the way right up front: The selection of tools in this kit is so well thought out that it’d make a killer starter kit for anyone looking to get into automotive work.  The tools themselves are absolutely first class quality, too.  This is the ultimate Christmas present for your tool-loving spouse or friend.

Update: Some readers asked where exactly these tools are manufactured.  They’re manufactured overseas to the same spec as the MAC tools manufactured here in the US, and the ones we saw at the facility were there for quality control checks, which are performed here.  We’re speaking with the actual engineer in charge in the next day or so, but the early word seems to be that they were sent out mainly because they didn’t want to tool up for the one-off special finish.  My take?  This is a helluva deal for some great tools.  They look and feel just like the other MAC tools we’ve used, and we can attest that they’re quite durable.  More soon.

Unboxing & Tool Selection

Note: Click on any of the smaller images to see their larger counterparts. 

The Foose kit comes in two separate boxes, one contains the box and the other contains the tools.  The tools ship right in their orange foam organizers, so all you have to do to stow them is unwrap the filled-up organizer and drop it into the appropriate drawer.

The top drawer serves as home to screwdrivers and pliers, and MAC isn’t stingy with them.  You get large, medium, and stubby screwdrivers in Phillips and common plus quite a variety of pliers: standard, linesman’s, needle-nose, slip-joint, locking, and wire cutting.  The screwdrivers are orange and black, featuring the Foose logo in offset colors.  The logo’s laser cut into the pliers.

The second drawer houses 3/8″ sockets and accessories.  The kit includes standard 6-point 3/8″ sockets in metric from 7mm to 19mm and in SAE from 1/4″ to 7/8″.  You also get 6-point deep 3/8″ sockets from 11mm to 23mm and in SAE from 3/8″ to 7/8″.  As any foose fan’ll want to work on cars, MAC includes two deep spark-plug sockets — they include the rubber insert for grabbing plugs — in 21mm and 5/8″.  Power comes from both a breaker bar and ratchet driver, and 3″, 6″, 10″ extensions help you get the exact reach you need.  In case you need to cross drive sizes, there’s a 3/8″ to 1/4″ drive adapter and a 3/8″ to 1/2″ drive adapter.  There’s even a 3/8″ universal joint for the really tough-to-reach jobs.

Read on to page 2 for more.

The “Macsimizer” sounds like it might be home gym equipment, but it’s not.  It’s Mac Tools’ mammoth eleven drawer toolbox.  It’s not really fair to call it a toolbox either.  Think of it more as a workstation-slash-shop-in-a-box. 

The Macsimizer’s cavernous interior contains some 37,000 cubic inches of storage space.  The full-extension drawers are standard Mac design with reinforced pulls, and they come in four color options: gold, black, chrome, and aluminum.  The box itself comes in eight standard colors or your choice of three uber-cool metal flake colors for some extra bling.

The only downside to this rolling tool nirvana is the price tag: Street pricing starts at $6,799. Of course, that’s not bad when you consider it’ll likely be the last tool storage item you ever need buy.  For that matter, if you have a super-sized tool storage need but don’t have a super-sized wallet, they do offer payment plans.

For more information (or to purchase one), contact MAC to find your local mobile distributor.  (Hey, you might want to do that anyway…  Getting to know your local MAC distributor is a good thing — even if you don’t have the cash to buy the big-ticket items.  You’d be amazed what “the guy in the truck” sees and hears around your local area.  He can not only tell you — and sell you — the best tool for your particular freaky job, he can also tell you what’s going on job-wise and what cool cars are around for sale.  Seriously.  They get around.)

The Macsimizer Toolbox System [MAC Tools]

We suspect that the enhancements will focus on additional user interactivity, along the lines of the toolbox configurator they released earlier this yeay.  It’s pretty slick; You can select from all the zillions of storage options Mac offers to build (and see) your own personalized box right on the screen, then you can order it.  They have a whole (very impressive) just-in-time manufacturing setup to turn your virtual box into reality.

We’ll definitely check in on Monday to see what’s up, and you might want to do the same.

Under Construction (Until Monday) [mactools.com]

According to MAC Tools: 

Using the Made to Order program, a technician can start with any tool box from the Macsimizer Series and modify it by choosing from eight colors, a variety of drawer configurations, and accessories from the Mac Tools Tool Box Accessories line which include nine handles, five corner and key guards, five casters, for drawer pulls, and ten decal graphic packages.  The customized mox will be produced and ready to ship in 48 hours.

All in all, MAC Tools says this adds up to 500,000 ways to configure your box. 

Apparently the configurator isn’t online, though.  To get it you need to call MAC Tools at 1-800-MAC-TOOLS or talk to your distributor.

MAC Tools Toolbox Configurator [MAC Tools]