hi everybody this is Brendan here with comma motor commandashmotor.com on the internets and today we're going to look at category six of the tools you need to round up in your toolbox so you can work on your vintage Honda motorcycle stay tuned all right so what I have in front of me is a handful of our specialty tools that you're going to need to have in your toolbox in order to work on your vintage Honda now this is our our sixth category which is specialty tools and we've broken this into two tiers first here is the basic tools you need to keep the bike maintained on the road the second tier are more advanced tools needed to rebuild some systems or other components on the bike so in this video we're looking at tier one tools we'll have the tier two tools in the second video and in front of me right here is a bunch of them we're going to go through them one at a time and explain what they do and why you need them the first tool I'm going to talk about is the torque wrench buy one seriously though like we mentioned this in a different video uh torque wrench is a super super important tool it tends to be a tool that a lot of people want to ignore and not invest in it does cost a bit of cash but the ones we have from KT are very affordable and high quality so buy one of these because you're going to use it from now until you own the bike forever because so many different nuts and bolts on the bike have specific torque values and this is the tool you need to make sure you tighten them to those values so buy a torque wrench buy a torque wrench and buy a torque wrench because you're going to use it over and over and over again this is a float level gauge this allows you to set the proper float height in your carburetor when you're doing a carburetor rebuild because that is another critical measurement it's this one happens to be in centimeters but you know you move the decimal point and you get your millimeters right there float height gauge it adjusts out and in up and down depending on what carburetor you're working on and this isn't just for Honda carburetors it'll fit lots of different motorcycle carburetors so again a good toolbox measurement tool there the next measurement tool we're going to look at is the feeler gauge this is probably the very first Precision measurement tool you're going to buy it looks kind of like a pocket knife and what they are is we have these different little strips of metal that are at various thicknesses and the values are printed in both SAE and Metric on the gauges and depending what you're working on you use this to set the clearances between two parts for example if you're doing ignition points you're sitting a gap put the feeler gauge in between and it's called a feeler gauge because you're actually going to feel the drag on it we've got lots of videos about setting points or valve adjustments using the feeler gauge so this is a must for a toolbox any vintage mechanic has probably at least one if not several of these on hand at any given time another common measurement tool is a spark plug gap tool now this is a coin style spark plug gap tool and it is used to adjust how wide the Gap is on the spark plug and you can make adjustments and take the measurement with the tool right here it has both SAE and Metric values on both sides of it and it's very very common tool a lot of mechanics have it so it's a must because you never assume a spark plug is properly gapped when you take it out of the box you should always check it and make the adjustment if needed because every engine has a different spec on what that spark plug gap is supposed to be and this the tool to make that happen stop speaking of spark plugs they have their own unique socket depending on the size and what type of engine they're going in I have two examples right here this one is our more common 13 16 socket which fits a lot of spark plugs we're going to see this one on like 350s 450s 360s like that and then this is a different sparkly socket this has an 18 millimeter end on it and this is what we use specifically like on the 550s or a 750 because not only is it long so you can get down inside the motor but its diameter is smaller so it clearances so this is a hard to reach way down in the engine the spark plug socket and then you definitely need this in order to take the spark plugs out uh most spark plug sockets either have a piece of rubber on the inside or a magnet so you can actually put the plug in that doesn't fall out and you can manipulate it around they'll also typically have an hex on the top of them so you can grab them with an opening wrench should you need to depending on where the spark plug is and the engine because you can't always get a 3 8 drive in there this one happens to have a crossbar in it so you can put like a screwdriver through there if you need to to break it loose so sparklett sockets are a must for the different types of engines you're going to be messing with this is a very specific tool this is a valve adjustment wrench that goes particularly to the Honda 175s 200s 350 and 400 four cylinders where they have a little square top on the valve adjuster and these are the proper size little square ends of the wrench so you can actually get them on the adjuster and make the adjustment because trying to use an adjustable wrench on that is is too difficult so if you have an engine that uses the square type of valve adjuster this is the wrench so you can actually make that adjustment easy the first electrical tool you're going to find yourself using is a test light and the situation we'll probably use this in is going to be sending the ignition timing on your bike however the test light is a really valuable tool for electrical system diagnostic it's very simple it's just basically a light bulb and a wire and a probe but it can tell you a lot of information especially when you're doing electrical work so a test light is another must-have electrical tool for your box this is an impact driver or sometimes known as an impact screwdriver and it is used in conjunction with a hammer to break stubborn Fasteners loose it is not the same thing as an impact wrench or pneumatic impact wrench or electric one let you see a mechanic shop you actually put a bit in it put that into the screw and you hit it on the back with a hammer and it breaks stubborn Fasteners loose we like to use it to take the screws out of the side covers of all the different engines because a lot of those screws are very stuck speaking of screws that are stuck on the Vintage Hondas many of what look like Philip said screws on the bikes are actually not Phillips they're called j-i-s or Japanese industrial standard and what I have here are some JIS tipped screwdrivers they look like flip screwdrivers with a difference being the shape of the tip here on some of the angles again even to the naked eye you can't tell them apart but man when you go to use them and how they grip into the screw is all the difference in the world and a couple of JS screwdrivers are going to make your life a lot easier in breaking loose those especially Fasteners that are found all across Japanese bikes that were built in the 70s there's a lot of pieces on the engine that are held together with SNAP Rings or circlips and these are snap ring pliers so you can remove the internal or external snap rings on the engine this style happens to have a couple different tip sizes and also tip Direction depending on if it's an internal or external snap ring a good set will cover most of your bases on any of the snap Rings you're going to run into these are a couple of the main tools needed to do a carburetor synchronization now we have a synchronization kit for a couple different bikes there's some other pieces in there some adapters some vinyl tubing and some valves but here are the main pieces so you can get your Carburetors in sync a vacuum gauge right here which lets you know what the engine is pulling vacuum wise and a synchronization wrench which is a very long flat head screwdriver and a hex on the end there so you can get into the engine and make the adjustment to the sink screws engines like this 360 550 750 the small fours like the 350f the 400f will all need to have a sync tool set up so you can get the carburetors flowing the same when the bike runs nice and smooth like it's supposed to so specifically this is used to measure fork oil out when you're doing a fork oil change because Forks do use it very specific volume of oil this one happens to be 100 milliliter metric graduated cylinder to make that the job easier depending on how much volume of oil your fork needs this is a spoke wrench which is very similar to an open-end wrench but it has very specific size ends on it to fit on the different nipples that you find on vintage Honda motorcycles there's two different sizes that are very common but this lets you tighten and loosen the spokes accurately and easily without rounding off the square ends on it if you try to use an adjustable wrench it makes the job a lot more difficult so a spoke wrench with very specific sizes on it is what's going to make that job a lot easier and truing up a wheel foreign got some other tire tools here and we do have a video that shows you how to do your own tire change these are Tire levers typically you need to pair them to to pry your tire on and off along with them is a tire Tamer tool again other there are other videos we show you how to use this tool specifically but you want to change your tires and Tube yourself you're going to need at least this stuff for the job but there's a couple more other pieces that make the job easier this is a tire bead holder tool which helps you install a tire back on the rim especially doing the job yourself but keeping the bead from popping off and a couple other tire tools here they're specific this is a valve core tool used to remove the valve core out of the valve stem in case you need to deflate the tire quickly or if you're doing the balance beads and you want to add balance beads to your tire that's a really nice core removal tool if you've ever put an inner tube in a tire like with your fingers you realize how difficult it can be to get the valve stem of the tube aligned through the hole in the rim so you can then pull it through lock it down and then get the rest of the tube inside the tire it can be a very tedious task and this right here makes that a lot easier this is called a valve stem fishing tool and basically what you end up doing is you thread the end of this into where the valve core is and you end up pulling the valve stem through the tire or through the rim easily so it makes it the job a lot easier right it's kind of hard to explain you have to actually show it in context but again this helps you install tube into the rim and gets that valve core or valve stem through the rim for easy installation this concludes our overview of the Tier 1 tools that you need for your toolbox to work on the Vintage Hondas now remember the tier one tools are specifically tools to do the basic maintenance you need to keep the bike on the road the tier 2 tools which we have on another video will have links above and below or more specific tools for doing component rebuilding whether it's hubs or engines and different pieces on the bike again we'll have links below and we'll have another video about that coming up very soon conclusion you need to buy these tools they're going to make the jobs on the maintenance of the bike a lot easier I guarantee you every single tool on this bench here I use in the shop the other crew here uses in the shop and you're going to find that you're going to use as well on your bike as you're going through your vintage motorcycle repair Journey with that this has been Brendan with common motor common dashmutter.com on the internets make sure you like and follow us on Facebook and Instagram subscribe to our newsletter via our website and of course subscribe to this YouTube channel down below and don't forget to ring the bell and we will see you next time it's Road ready with touring suspension and complete instrumentation and is a Honda