This contraption solves the problem of trying to undo (or tighten) nuts & bolts in tight spaces without taking everything apart.
It's a universal impact wrench, light, and a fish-eye camera at the end of a drain-snake-like arm hooked to an LCD screen and remote manipulator controls. You thread the head around whatever obstacles are present in the assembly are trying to work on, and tighten/loosen whatever nuts, bolts, or screws you need to tighten or loosen.
This should make certain types of repairs a lot easier and faster because you will need to take apart fewer things to get to the part you need to manipulate.-- cowtamer, Apr 11 2011 Gator Grip http://toolsforstag...om/gatorgripkit.jpgOne type of universal wrench [cowtamer, Apr 11 2011] Drain Snake with Camera http://www.muscleca...on_110517179706.jpg [cowtamer, Apr 11 2011] "...and not have the goddamn common courtesy to give him a reacharound."-- rcarty, Apr 11 2011 I can't imagine the impact of the impact wrench as propogated through a snake would be terribly effective.-- RayfordSteele, Apr 12 2011 There are torque transmitting cables that can handle a heavy load without to much wrap or backlash. It could probably be made to work.
I'm not sure how you'll hold this on the bolt head, that could be more of a problem.-- MechE, Apr 12 2011 wow. 1) Reactionless drive system. 2) An expensive tool to do a job worse than a little bit of elbow grease would. 3) Nothing is going to get into tighter spaces than a flex head ratchet box wrench (get the right tools) 4) Left some bolts loose on the inside of something? OOPS! TIME TO SELF FLAGELLATE. 5) Usually things that can be serviced/torqued are designed so that such a procedure can be carried out, reasonably, without the use of tools not yet in existence.-- WcW, Apr 12 2011 [WcW] well yes, but what do you *really* think of the idea ?-- FlyingToaster, Apr 12 2011 [WcW] To get the battery out of my car I either need a 12" ratchet extension or to turn the bolt about 1/2 of a ratchet click at a time.
Design engineers can be idiots about accessibility, and a tool that makes things more convenient is not a bad thing.-- MechE, Apr 12 2011 I don't see how you can get the impact from the impact driver down the cable to the nut or bolt.-- Twizz, Apr 12 2011 MechE you're a smart person. Take off the battery clamp and replace it with a conventional strap. They didn't intend for home users to service their batteries, ever, it's a safety hazard. There have been a few times when, deep inside a casting or up under a cowling that such a tool might be very handy but the challenge involved in making it work are tremendous. Essentially you are talking about an endoscopic surgery setup for doing mechanical work. Fact is, either it was designed to be serviced in place, designed to be R&R or somebody screwed up royal. I once met an overdrive unit with a bad detente that lived deep within the body of a drive case on a crawler tractor. It would have been possible to remove the cap, replace the ball and spring and have left it at that but the cap was to close to the case to unscrew. After removing the unit, an additional half hour of labor, the seals and bearings were found to be worn which was the cause of the detente breaking the spring. If I had a wonder tool to remove and replace the spring I would have saved half an hour on that part and wasted five on the fact that in a week's time the thing would have been back in the shop.-- WcW, Apr 12 2011 [Twizz] you can't get the 'impact' to go down a cable, but it will go down a complicated and expensive arrangement of solid u-joints encapsulated in a tube.
Or you can do what the rest of us do: hold the flashlight in your teeth, use every extension in the set to make a 4' socket wrench, and curse like a sailor when the threads strip.-- Alterother, Apr 15 2011 random, halfbakery