Champion 7989 spark plugs are a one piece design that eliminates separating (image courtesy of ModdedMustangs.com).

Summary: In this auto repair blog post, we provide information about an improved design spark plug for Ford 3 valve engines. The original equipment Ford Motorcraft spark plugs have became notorious for breaking when being removed.  One of our previous articles is on broken spark plug removal; but who wants to put the same bad design back in?  There was a huge need a newly designed replacement spark plug that would work in place of Ford’s badly designed spark plug that has caused much expense and inconvenience for many Ford owners. This article is about that plug and has application information as well.

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Honda Ridgeline is one of the vehicles affected by TSB 08-045

Honda has always been a little different when its comes to their TSB’s (Technical Service Bulletins). They have used terms that are down to earth, that mechanics can understand easily. Plenty of technical information but without all the technical talk. Honda has now gone above and beyond their previous efforts to inform technicians about issues and fixes. The PDF provided by Honda not only has pictures, it has video and sound!

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Chrysler 300 with only 37,000 miles overheated & towed in

What would cause two cooling fan motors to be out at the same time? One possibility is that they didn’t fail at the same time, one failed and the car was still able to be driven until the other failed also. But two fan motors failing on a car that only has 37,000 miles didn’t make sense either. Obviously power and ground supply was first checked with a power probe to verify the motors were getting the correct input to allow them to run. Once the fan motors were replaced, a terrible ticking noise was heard. More pictures below:

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New Specialty tool for handling Ford broken spark plugs!

If you’re a subscriber to our automotive tool blog, you know we pointed out in a previous post, the need for a less expensive alternative to the Ford Rotunda 303-1398. The SPX Rotunda 303-1203 removes broken spark plugs on some Ford 5.4 engines, 2004 and up. But it only works after the broken porcelain piece is out of the way. That’s where the new Lisle LIS 65600 automotive specialty tool, comes into the picture. The best way to try to prevent Ford spark plugs from breaking to begin with (per a Ford Technical Service Bulletin-TSB) is to loosen the spark plugs slightly and then soak them with penetrating oil. Sometimes the carbon build up around the electrode shield will still separate from the main part of the spark plug. So, in many cases the porcelain part of the spark plug will stay in. This prevents the use of the 303-1203. Rotunda offers the SPX 303-1398 to remove the porcelain or ceramic piece, but the pins included in this six hundred dollar kit can only be used once. The pins are secured into the center of the broken spark plug (where the electrode was) with loc-tite, then the puller is used to hopefully pull the ceramic piece out of the way, so the two hundred dollar 303-1203 can be used to remove the metal electrode shield. Read the rest…

KD 41540 – What’s in your tool box?

You may already know from reading our auto tool blog that DenLors Automotive tools sells a lot of Jump-n-Carry Jump boxes, OTC scanners, OTC tire pressure monitors, OTC auto specialty tools and Visual Optics video inspection scopes (and much more). But did you know that KD tools has introduced many so many neat automotive hand tools recently that we have had to make special provisions to keep up with the demand? This automotive tool blog is on five of KD Tools latest and greatest auto specialty tools at prices that won’t break the bank.  

KD 41540 rear brake caliper tool kit is a specialty hand tool kit that comes in a nice storage case, it has many rear disc caliper piston adapters to fit a variety of cars. This has been one of the most popular new mechanics tool kits recently due to it’s low price and range of use. Most rear disc brake caliper pistons wind back in, due to the emergency brake being built into the caliper. This tool makes screwing the rear disc caliper piston back into the caliper much easier when performing a brake job.

Low Profile Magnetic Oil Drain Socket Set by KD Tools

KD 3870 is a magnetic oil drain plug socket set that comes with a low profile gear ratchet and storage case. The neat thing about this tool kit is that the magnetic sockets are color coded and have a thumb wheel design, they make handling hot oil drain plugs much easier, since you can hold onto the socket instead of the hot drain plug to keep from getting burned while doing that quick oil change. The low profile GearRatchet (KD Tools owns GearWrench) fits in tight areas like between the oil drain plug and most car’s sub-frames. Some tech’s keep this oil drain plug socket set attached to their oil drain right along side the oil filter pliers.

Serpentine Belt Set by KD Tools

KD 3680 is a really cool serpentine belt tool set that makes accessing hard to reach serpentine belt tensioners much easier. Common sizes are included in this kit to fit most serpentine belt tensioners and the long narrow extension arm attaches to the GearWrench at any position and then the crows foot or socket goes in the end of the GearWrench. This mechanics tool set makes frustrating serpentine belts a breeze to change. Once you use this KD tool set you’ll never want to use a regular ratchet or wrench again to change a car’s serpentine belt.

One Man Brake Bleeding Kit by KD Tools

KD 3712 provides a quick and efficient way to bleed brakes. Being able to bleed the brakes without having someone to pump the brakes saves a lot of time. This tool kit allows the auto mechanic to place the auto-fill brake fluid bottle in place before raising the car up on the lift, to bleed the brakes. The vacuum bleeder works fast, so having the auto fill prevents accidentally emptying the master cylinder and getting air in the system. The vacuum brake bleeder also helps to prevent having slippery brake fluid on the shop’s floor, that manual brake bleeding usually results in. Many mechanics are upselling a brake flush to their customers that are in for a regular oil change. If the customer watches while to flush is being done, it will look much more professional to use this brake bleeding kit than to allow the brake fluid to drip down on the floor.   

Thread On Fan Clutch Tool Set by KD Tools

KD 3472 is for fan clutch assemblies that thread on to the water pump instead of bolt on. These type of fan clutches used to be found only on Fords, now they can be found on other makes as well. When changing a water pump or fan clutch this tool makes life easier. The narrow access to the fan clutch wrench flats requires a slim design tool to reach it comfortably. The KD 3472 not only has the wrench, it has the holder so that keeps the water pump from spinning while removing the car’s fan clutch. One vehicle that has a thermostatic fan clutch that is prone to failure is the Jeep Liberty. The fan clutch sensor wires commonly get chafed, sometimes causing a fault code. Flat rate time for changing the fan clutch on the Liberty is 2.8 hours, this tool makes the job go much easier, one job could pay for the tool.          

OTC (Owatonna Tool Company) is a very large tool company as you may already know. OTC’s tool line includes hand tools, shop equipment and diagnostic scan tools. The OTC Genisys scan tool has been a very popular choice in auto scan tools for many years, but now Pegisys is staged to be OTC’s next generation of automotive diagnostic scan tools. Genisys is still a very good scan tool and will continue to be very popular due to it’s much lower cost and it will continue to be supported by OTC. OTC has many automotive code readers, scan tools and diagnostic tools. OTC currently has the OTC 3499 (no fancy name), the Nemisys, the Genisys and now the Pegisys. The Pegisys has AirBridge technology which allows wireless communication with the vehicle and the Internet. I suppose there is a correlation between the Pegisys and Pegasus, Pegasus is a winged horse in classical mythology and is also a northern constellation between Cygnus and Aquarius. It represents the freedom of the wireless capability that allows the auto tech to move around the vehicle when performing diagnostic tests. Auto scan tools normally have an interface cable that keeps the tech in the seat or requires the cable to be draped through the door or window to reach the engine compartment. 

Pegisys has a touch screen. In addition to being able to use the scroll to change frames when using the scan tool, the Pegisys allows the user to make selections right on the touch screen. Everyone knows that guys are “visual” creatures. So, what better way for a guy to find the application he wants than to just touch the image on the screen?

OTC 3825 equipped with a scope.  Sometimes when testing a particular component on a car, a scope is needed to see the wave patterns to help detect momentary glitches. This is particularly helpful when testing sensors like the TPS (Throttle Position Sensor).

Updates through the Internet. The Pegisys comes with a one year subscription that starts when the tool is registered for warranty on the Pegisys website. It comes with USA Domestic and Asian software and even has OBD I and OBD II cables included. Optional software enables the Pegisys to be used on European vehicles and Heavy duty truck applications.

OTC also produces car dealer specific diagnostic scan tools like the Tech 2 Scan tool for Chevrolet. While the Tech 2 has programming/flashing capability it is limited to GM. The key to the Pegisys scan tool is that it has the capability to access many different makes and many systems. This makes the OTC Pegisys a good choice for repair shops that need to service many different makes and models. With access to the Internet, technicians can also easily find more information from Identifix an optional data base that has fixes that auto techs in the real shop environment have uploaded. Indentifix can of course be accessed without the Pegisys, but with the wireless Internet it just makes it very convenient.

My wife and I visited our local Lowes home improvement store, looking for a new ceiling fan. While looking up at the ceiling fans, I walked around the end of the aisle in-between a guy and this tool box. I actually walked right in front of him, while he was trying to snap a picture. The guy was all giddy, had his cell phone out and was snapping a shot of a tool box. He looks at me and says “It’s got a fridge”.

I promptly left my wife to look for ceiling fans alone and proceeded to check out this really cool tool box with this guy I never met before. I understood why this was such a “photo-op” now. This is a first. Yeah, I’ve seen the little Craftsman mini refrigerator disguised as a tool box at Sears, but that is nothing compared to this tool box. This box is large enough to hold a ton of tools, has a stainless steel finish, comes with drawer liners, a CD player, Pioneer speakers and best of all….a REFRIGERATOR.

I know what you may be thinking…..does DenLor’s sell this? I’m sorry to say, at this time we have nothing comparable.

I’m not saying this tool box is the same quality as a Waterloo, after-all it is made in China, but it really does rank highly in the cool factor and it seems to be priced very low for it’s size and features. In case anyone at Waterloo is reading this and may be planning to produce a box similar to this, I have one suggestion. I would recommend designing the refrigerator so that it can be locked easily with the rest of the drawers. There would be nothing worse than coming in to work on Monday morning to find out your fridge was raided!

OK, finally Calvan has released their version of the OTC 303-1203. The Calvan is pictured on the left and the Rotunda is on the right. Calvan actually did a very nice job, improving on the Ford design and including a storage case. And they even upgraded the thread tap by adding badly needed length to it to reach down in the spark plug recess of the cylinder head. Still no word about if Calvan is going to tackle the production of a lower cost equivelant to the 303-1398 porcelain remover. We can special order the 303-1398, but with the price around $700 we have refused to stock them. Hopefully someone will figure out an easier, less expensive way to remove the porcelain without the over-priced Rotunda 303-1398. Early TSB’s from Ford said to remove the porcelain with needle nose vice grips. I’ve also talked to tech’s that chip away at the porcelain until it can be removed piece by piece. Mustangs, F150’s, Vans and Rv’s are affected, any Ford with a 4.6 or 5.4 could have this problem. If anyone has found an effective way to remove the porcelain, please comment. At least now we have a nice alternative in the Calvan 39100 to the Rotunda 303-1203.