Sumped with brakes

[Swiss Tony]

Sumped or stumped?

Does anyone know the right size brake spanner needed for the rear adjusters on a Spitfire 1500?

And the right size socket to remove the sump too.

And if anyone knows how to stop my son asking continuously for help on his car when I am busy, it would be appreciated

Thanks

Swiss

[CHRIS211083]

Hi, for rear brake adjusters you should use a drum brake adjuster spanner. Its a square drive spanner designed for the job as if you use a spanner it could slip and round off the adjuster. Sump plugs a bit bigger however you should still use the correct spanner however off the top of my head its a 1/2" or 13mm. However there are many different sump plugs you can use.

Chris.

[MarkB]

I bought one of these sump spanners off ebay item No. 270731415125. Not made of the hardest material but had no problem removing a couple of stuck sump and diff drain plugs.

Cheers

Blus

[smithy]

Swiss_Tony wrote:

Sumped or stumped?
Does anyone know the right size brake spanner needed for the rear adjusters on a Spitfire 1500?
And the right size socket to remove the sump too.

Good advice given, Swiss.

Quote:

And if anyone knows how to stop my son asking continuously for help on his car when I am busy, it would be appreciated...

The two options I'd suggest are help him out, stuffing it up dreadfully so he doesn't ask again, or move away leaving no forwarding address. You can always say "no", but as I'm sure you already realise, that doesn't seem to work.

[Lord Sorbington]

Swiss_Tony wrote:

And if anyone knows how to stop my son asking continuously for help on his car when I am busy, it would be appreciated

Simple.  Just buy a car which needs no work at all.  Then you'll never be busy with your own car and can thus spend all sodding day helping people fit subframe bushes to their 1986 BMW 5 series.................Those bushes are pure evil.

A 7/16th spanner, tapped with a persuader, is usually enough to remove a square sump plug.

[Lord Sorbington]

smithy wrote:

The two options I'd suggest are help him out, stuffing it up dreadfully so he doesn't ask again, or move away leaving no forwarding address.

I tried stuffing it up dreadfully (sounds a bit dirty), and purposely damaged a really expensive and hard to obtain component but I still keep being asked back to assist.

Moving away and leaving no forwarding address seems to be the only option.  Don't forget to change your email address and phone numbers.  Your name too, just to be on the safe side.

[Gt6s]

Brake adjusters are 1/4 AF. Sump plug is 7/16 AF (spanner not socket).

For the brake adjusters I use the female end of a 1/4 drive 3 inch extension bar with an m12 (17mm head) nut welded on to male end, adjustments are then made with a 17mm spanner.
Sump plugs can be replaced with a gearbox drain plug which has a built in magnet the spanner size is then 3/4 AF hex.

[heraldcoupe]

Swiss_Tony wrote:

Does anyone know the right size brake spanner needed for the rear adjusters on a Spitfire 1500?

It's a 1/4" square head.

As many of the square headed spanners designed for the job are made of cheese, I improvised.
I use a 1/4" drive socket of reasonably large size, say 8 or 10mm, with a matching allen key to use it in the opposite orientation.

Cheers,
Bill.

[thebrookster]

heraldcoupe wrote:

As many of the square headed spanners designed for the job are made of cheese

I always figured that I was quite lucky to be given a brake adjusting spanner with the two sizes of square head that is actually darn good quality, this confirms it!!

Although I must confess it currently resides in the spitfire just now, as the bigger end (can't quite recollect what size is what) is a also a perfect fit for the square peg on the softtop front handle when said handle breaks off!! (I have replacement handles, just not fitted em yet.)

It is truly amazing what alternative uses can be found for tools..........................