Automotive Tools

[The Skipper]

Looking to buy a 9/16" socket wrench.

Where?

[Farma]

Not joking, take a look in shops selling everything from water pipes to washers.

I don't know where you live but in my area there's plenty of shops selling tool. If they aren't on display tell the shopkeeper what you need and they could have it in a box on a back shelf.

[Crossy]

Hmmm, do you mean 9/16 AF, Whitworth, UNC, UNF ?? all different

I assume AF (most sockets are marked as such), you may struggle in Thailand being in a metric part of the world. 14mm or 15mm may be OK if you get the single hex type.

As note previously, take a nut along to a mom and pop hardware store, they may have something from the Vietnam era

[Somtham]

Hmmm, do you mean 9/16 AF, Whitworth, UNC, UNF ?? all different

Sorry Crossy - a 9/16" socket is 9/16" period. It has absolutely nothing to do with the thread type Whitworth, UNC, UNF.

Skipper - If you live in Bangkok go down to Klong Tome, located between Chinatown and the street that sells all the guns, on a Saturday or Sunday and you should be able to find one there. If you cannot find one and you're desperate PM me and I'll loan you one via EMS. Do you need 3/8" or 1/2" drive?

rgds

[Crossy]

Sorry Crossy - a 9/16" socket is 9/16" period. It has absolutely nothing to do with the thread type Whitworth, UNC, UNF.

Of course you're right, at least in the modern world, I was trying to chuck a tongue-in-cheek spanner in the works

Way back, when Whitworth threads were common, for some unknown reason Whit spanners were marked with the THREAD size rather than the ACROSS FLATS (AF) size as used universally now, a 1/2" Whit spanner was more like 5/8". Hmmm, really starting to show my age now

Glad you can help out the skipper

[jayenram]

Sorry Crossy - a 9/16" socket is 9/16" period. It has absolutely nothing to do with the thread type Whitworth, UNC, UNF.

From my vague recollection, the 9/16 AF measures 9/16" across the flats and the 9/16 Whitworth measures 9/16" across the 'points'.

Whatever, the sizes are definitely different.

Edited to make it clearer and with certain additional information from the chatroom:

9/16 AF measures 9/16" across the flats of the nut.

9/16 Whitworth measures 9/16" across the points of the thread, i.e. the original diameter of the bar before tapping.

[Somtham]

Of course you're right, at least in the modern world, I was trying to chuck a tongue-in-cheek spanner in the works

Way back, when Whitworth threads were common, for some unknown reason Whit spanners were marked with the THREAD size rather than the ACROSS FLATS (AF) size as used universally now, a 1/2" Whit spanner was more like 5/8". Hmmm, really starting to show my age now

Glad you can help out the skipper

The only thing I remember about Whitworth is many, many years ago while working on my '59 Austin-Healy 100-6 I used to swear alot whenever I came across one of those Whitworth bolts and none of my US tools fit it!!

rgds

[Crossy]

Sorry Crossy - a 9/16" socket is 9/16" period. It has absolutely nothing to do with the thread type Whitworth, UNC, UNF.

From my vague recollection, the 9/16 AF measures 9/16" across the flats and the 9/16 Whitworth measures 9/16" across the 'points'.

Yeah, it's something like that, this page http://www.timebus.co.uk/rlh/whitworth.htm has some interesting information. Particularly:-

9/16 AF = 0.562" Across flats

9/16 BSF = 0.920" Across flats

9/16 Whit. = 1.010" Across flats

Now just chuck in BA (British Association) where the size numbers go backwards (decreasing with bigger threads) and we're thoroughly confused

Bl00dy good reason for going Metric.

Edited January 27, 2007 by Crossy

[Pink Mist]

sorry Jaye but you are wrong on the whitworth side of things

whitworth is the diameter of the bolt, same as metric.

[Crossy]

sorry Jaye but you are wrong on the whitworth side of things

whitworth is the diameter of the bolt, same as metric.

Nearly, an M4 (4mm) metric thread has a 10mm AF nut size, so the spanner will be marked 10mm

Whitworth marks the spanner with the thread size.

Back home, my tools kit contained metric, AF, Whitworth, BSF and BA spanners. comes from working on older British vehicles. Very few of the sizes are common between the types