RE: Adjusting Rear Brakes (Transaxle Cars)

["Herbert Neily" <neily@domain.elided>]

    Russ Neely (no relation to me - he spells Neily incorrectly) mentioned
the PITA problem of having to hold the transaxle rear brake caliper 5mm
allen set screw stationary while tightening the 17mm lock nut.  Like Russ,
I've longingly looked at the Sears ratchet set that has a hole thru the
center of the socket drive, but always felt that I'd never use the set
enough to justify the purchase price.
    Recently, I created a simple tool to handle this task.  At our local
Lowe's Home Improvement store, I spied some 1/2-inch square tubing among
their selection of all-thread, bar stock, etc.  This particular tubing is
made by "Steel Works".  It has a wall thickness of about 1/16-inch and comes
in a 3-foot length - cost me maybe $8.  If you take a short piece of this
tube, you can slip it into a 1/2-inch drive 17mm socket.  The 5mm allen
wrench will easily fit though the middle of the tube.  Naturally,  a 1/2
open-end wrench will fit on the tube.  However, a 12-point 15mm box-end
wrench is just the right size to engage the corners of the square tube and
it won't slip off of the tube.  The square tube has plenty of torsional
strength and stiffness, so you can fully tighten the lock nut in one
operation.  I know for a fact that a Kobalt 1/2-inch drive 17mm socket will
fit into the lock nut countersink in the brake caliper body.  Eyeballing my
Craftsman 16mm & 18mm sockets, I'd say that there's a good chance that a
Craftsman 17mm socket would fit as well.
    Works for me.  YMMV.
Bert Neily
Raleigh, NC, USA
'84 GTV6
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