The mandrel of the
Back-Tap expands the tool after the tap has been
inserted, keeping the tap straight. |
 |
TOOLKIT
Back It On Out
Photographs by James
Westman (tool in use, left) and Burcu Avsar (tool,
right)
Cross-threaded spark plug threads: A mechanic's
worst nightmare. They invariably happen on the night
before a vacation or when you're working on a
friend's car and he's waiting to pick up the kids
from school or has some other can't-miss-it
obligation. That's just when you need to do
something calmly, to avoid stripping the threads out
completely. I wish I'd had a set of Back-Taps 30
years ago. Normally, you would attempt to thread a
tap into the damaged threads to clean them up--which
is not easy. The Back-Tap's threads collapse to
allow you to insert it into the plug hole past the
damaged area, where it expands and engages undamaged
threads. Then as you spin it back out, it pulls the
shavings along with it instead of leaving them
inside the engine. There's a size for O2
sensor threads as well. Back-Taps cost $49.95 per
thread size.
www.starrproducts.com |
