General Maintenance Tools

The list of general maintenance tools is practically endless, depending on the degree of your involvement. However, a basic list for the average do-it-yourself mechanic would include:

• An oil filter wrench,
• A grease gun,
• A container for draining oil,
• A suction gun,
• Battery terminal cleaners, and
• Many rags for cleaning up the inevitable mess.

Oil filter wrenches come in various types. The strap wrench is the most common and will handle most filters. A more sophisticated filter wrench combines a strap or band wrench with a ratchet drive. This type is useful when the filter is located in an out-of-the-way place. Many oil filters on front wheel drive vehicles, can only be removed with this type of wrench. The other types of filter wrenches are applied to the end of the oil filter, and both are designed for use with a ratchet drive.

A funnel is the best way to get oil from the bottle into the engine with a minimum of mess. Any other way will surely result in oil spilled on the engine, which will turn to smoke when the engine gets hot. Other types of fillers have flexible spouts for filling automatic transmissions and other hard-to-reach filler tubes.

A grease gun is also the only way to lubricate the vehicle's chassis. The grease gun comes in various sizes that accept cartridges of different kinds of grease and a variety of flexible and odd-shaped fittings to reach hard-to-get-at grease nipples.

A fluid suction gun is almost a necessity to add (or remove) oil from a differential. The filler plugs on differentials and manual transmissions are frequently in a spot that you cannot fill directly from the container. You will probably have to transfer the fluid from the container into a suction gun first. The fluid is also frequently heavy oil, which does not flow easily, which further complicates the problem. To remove fluid from a unit without a drain plug, a suction gun is invaluable.

Battery cleaning tools are inexpensive and make battery terminal cleaning easier and quicker. They generally come in two styles, one for top terminals and one for side terminals. The one for side terminals is nothing more than a miniature wire brush, which you can easily substitute.