I'd get a nice floor jack that can lift the truck up without stacking blocks of wood on top of it. I just don't like bottle jacks. They are a pita to deal with. If you plan to do much work a nice floor jack is a must. NEVER EVER GET UNDER THE TRUCK WITHOUT JACK STANDS SUPPORTING IT. It's not safe at all all to get under there with just the jack holding it and I've heard of people doing it and getting killed. It's not something you want to do. I put it on jack stands then raise the jack up to the truck but not so it lifts if off the jackstands any for extra protection. Get a quality set of jack stands and a quality jack here. I have an old as in probably 30 or more year old Craftsman that works great but I haven't heard too good of things about their new jacks.

As for tools 90% of my tools are probably Craftsman and they are fine for someone thats just a DIY yourselfer. If you plan to work on it everyday Snap On is probably the way to but they also cost a whole lot more.

For what you are wanting to do i'd get a nice Craftsman tool set and maybe some of the specialty tools from Harbor Frieght or something. If you decided to get a air compressor and air tools Ingersoll Rand are the only way to go for air tools imo.

I had to tell you to start out with just one of those 150 piece sets as I don't think I'd find it useful. I have quite a bit tied up into tools. With those sets it's a good starter set but usually you just get sockets, rachets, a couple of open end wrenches, maybe some allen wrenches, and sometimes some screw drivers.

I'd but a set like that then get a nice set of Torx sockets, Hex sockets, and Screwdrivers. Wal-Mart has Stanley Torx and Hex sockets for a fraction of the cost of sears and for as little as they are needed thats what I'd go with. No need to spend $40 on a set from sears when you can get ones that are still good quality and work fine for $13 at Wal-Mart.

Then get a nice set of metric especially and maybe standard too Gear Wrenches. These imo are a wonderful investment. I like the ones that have the flex head but not the ones where you can flip the thing to reverse it. The ones we had at the shop like that I didn't like.

Maybe get a breaker bar and a nice torque wrench also. For the breaker bar on the cheap side of things I'd get a Craftsman or similar. I didn't like the feel of the Craftsman one though so I went to Lowes and got a Kobalt one and have been happy with it. No need to spend money for a Snap On one of these if you don't use it everyday.

For a torque wrench I'd probably go with a Snap On especially if you want to do stuff like the pleneum where you need to have it torqued properly. For around $270 you can get a nice one. I know it's a little more but this is one of those things where it's probably worth it to pay the extra. If you cheap out and get a $20 one from Autozone or whatever you will probably regret it when you overtorque a bolt and have it cause damage to your engine. At cheapest I'd go with a Craftsman here but I think I'd spend the extra for the Snap On for this. The Craftsman ones seem okay for using on lug nuts and similar but I wouldn't trust them enough for any serious work like engine or transmission work. They also have a reputation for dying right after their one year warranty is up.


Some other nice things to have are a magnetic tray to stick your bolts in when you take them out. One more thing I really enjoy but have heard others not like is a flexible driver and flexible extension. When doing jobs like the door hinge on my truck it was all we could get to work to take out the bolt from the inside. You don't need it all the time but it's nice to have sometimes.


Then another thing that you only sometimes need but it's nice to have when you do need it is an impact screw driver. This is nice when you have a screw that won't come out.

Bolt outs are also a nice thing to have incase you strip a bolt.

Some other things that are a must are a nice set of Vise Grips and nice set of pliers. I'd say you would be fine just going with Craftsman pliers and Vice Grips from the Vice Grips brand or another as long as they look nice. I have some I think Irwin or something ones that are really nice.

Overall most tools if you are just a DIY one are fine from Sears or even Wal-Mart but there are a few things like a torque wrench and thinks that a precision tools that you are probably better off to spend the extra on something like a Snap On.

 

I should be a salesperson for sears with all the good things I have to say about that 263 piece tool set but i'm not so I'm still broke...

Anyways, I say that the set is a good place to start because it comes with a custom fit toolbox that helps organize everything in it's place in one of the 4 drawers included. The price is tough to beat, it's high quality and made in USA with a lifetime no hassle warranty, it comes with sockets as well as 1/4", 3/8", and 1/2" drive ratchets including deep and regular sockets being metric and SAE with extensions for each, a full set of 6 & 12 point sockets, a magnetic screwdriver with changable heads, and it's fully stocked with high quality metric and SAE; allen wrenches, 20 or so mini wrenches, and various wrenches from like 4mm to 18mm and 1/4"-3/4".

I must say that a person looking for tools should definately check that set out because it's hard to find so much in such a nice neat package for the money of similar quality anywhere.

 

this thread is on going havent said much but its talking about tools now and ill chime in here i do 90%of my work to my truck myself im a dock boatlift and seawall guy by trade and work on atvs on the side as a parttime job i use alot of tools and craftsman is an all inclusive setand has great tools and the warranty is great but i'd also like to point out that i do alot of tool shopping at lowes and home depot and lowes brand kobalt is now gauranteed for life as craftsman tools are and they maybe alil cheaper and more reasonable i have husky kobalt and craftsman tools and i think they all work great. just becareful what u buy from harborfreight ive had alot of stupid **** break on me but it no big deal cuase it wasnt expensive just do urself the favor and start workin on lil **** urself its not rocketscience if u got common sense ucan do alot of this **** urself ......j

 

hey dodge, when i slammed you a few post ago, it was because i was dumbfounded by the way you go about trying to get your truck fixed at shops , and then having the same **** happen to you all over again,I dont know the first thing about tranny's, helped my brother one time replace a turbo 350 in his monte carlo. So for the first time a few years ago ,i had a 72 chevy nova with a turbo 350 , and i bought a shift kit for it , and i didnt know a thing about trannys but i firgured i do it myself , learn something along the way about it, it went fine, i had to replace my heater core on my 01 dodge,but i kept putting it off , so i printed the DIY write up off this site and bought the heater core for $95 and spent about 5 hrs figuring it out, now i have heat....and saved $1000 from the dealership and $850 from a regular shop..i even figured if my tranny goes in my 01 dodge, that i would either try to rebuild it myself, or just buy a DR. Evil tranny and swap them out, i know rebuilding is a scary thought , but i figure if i figure it out eventually , i can keep it out of the shop, and save some $$$, and i hate the friggen dealerships they have about a 300% mark up or something like that, ALL im trying to say is that i dont have **** for tools, barley enough room to pull the front of my truck into the garage ,dont know a ton about vehicles but enough to get me by, the manual helps a little but ,GET YOUR HANDS DIRTY !!! AND TRY DOING it yourself have a friend come over that knows a little about it,i hate seeing ppl getting it up the *** from shops, later...............

 

Well when johnjokela is giving me the green light, I know I'm headed in the right direction. But no seriouslly guys, I can't thank you enough for everybodys thoughts and suggesstions of where to start. Sure it's a lot of money, but it's something you have to build up over time, and I have a good base to start. I can't tell you how anxious I am to start trying to do **** myself. I'm going to save myself money, I'm going to get my truck out of people's dirty *** shops, I'm going to stop making my truck the family scene, and most importantly, I'm going to learn how to work on my own god damn truck. I'm way too much into vehicles and my own truck to not know how to do basic basic operations, it's embarrassing. First things I want to work on is little **** like changing my oil, tune-ups, rotating the wheels, installing the cold air intake kit and the fastman throttle body. Once I can achieve these goals confidently, I'd like to step it up to the plenum gasket. I'll print the DIY manual from the forum out, and I'll attack it with my brother. If I'm lucky, maybe my parents will let me bring my goofy truck into their garage for that project[8D]. Anyways I've been putting this off way too long. I mean for christ sakes, I paid $360 for a tune-up...I could have saved myself so much money guys. Syntheitc oil changes cost me about $70 to have someone else do it for me. The list goes on and on. I may not be an expert at everything, but I can start doing the little **** and establish a base, perhaps even contribute to this site beyond speculation which would be nice. When I'm doing the plenum gasket, I'll be asking you guys questions during the project, not telling you about what some shop is telling me lol. How long do you think it would take to that plenum gasket job worse case scenario anyways? Anyways you guys got me headed in the right direction, and I think I'll start with sears big kit and work my way up from there with some specialty tools as you guys were mentioning. Thank you all, and this will be fun, and save me thousands and thousands of stupid dollars! I know my brother is in the same exact boat as I am, so I'm going to hassle him and see if he will split it down with me 50/50. I do have a garge but it's a shack lol. My hood fits in the garage and that's about it, but it's a nice place to store all my ****, and do minor engine jobs. Could even do the plenum in there now that I think of it.

 

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Do the plenum gasket first. It's causing your truck to lose alot of power, not to mention you're probably losing like 4mpg over it. The money you'll save in gas in a month will buy you one of the other mods you want. Remember this. Maintinance comes before modification.

 

Ok, so whats the news with the truck?

You have it yet? is the tranny shop fixxing it? or what.

 

Neon,

Buy that tool set I told you about.

Then open your own shop, I'm sure nobody in Maine will know any better.

 

Well I picked it up last Tuesday. Realized it was really messed up. So, I dropped it back with them on Thursday, and they kept it into the weekened. I don't care how long it takes them at this point, just as long as they are fixing their product. My engine has never skipped like that...EVER. Nor has it never been able to not go over 40mph...it was obviously a very new problem. The only thing that sucks is when I first dropped the truck with them 4 weeks ago, they told me an engine skip was coming up on their diagnostics. So they are using it as an excuse...but the truck has never shown a skipping sign. Anyway, the condition of the truck lays in their hands at this point, which I deeply hate because I feel awfully vulnerable.