The right tool for the job

[PJAB]

Hi

I am new to classic car ownership but loving my experience so far. It really is opening up a whole new world to me - not least car repair, maintenance and even improvement - which I am finding fascinating and rewarding. I know that I will make mistakes - but hopefully they will all be fixable. I like to take my time and do any job as “professionally” as I can. A large part of this is making sure that I have the right tools for the job - hence this post.

I am currently taking the instrument cluster out of the car to replace the bulbs and provide better illumination of the guages at night. There are a number of screws that I need to access that are quite hard to reach with my (large) hands. I basically need some kind of “collar / sleeve” on a magnetised screwdriver so that when I undo the screws they cannot just fall into inaccessible areas behind the guages. A simple magnetised screwdriver might be sufficient - but I am nervous that the screw could still drop either when removing the screw or when putting it back - hence my thought that I need some kind of “collar / sleeve” at the end of the screwdriver.

Does anyone know of any such tools and where I could purchase one? I do not even k now the name of the tool that I want - so searching the internet is tricky. I am hoping that someone reading this will recognise the problem that I am trying to overcome - and know the name of the correct tool so that I can be better informed when searching the internet.

Thanks for reading this.

Peter

[poprivet]

I had a wedge screwdriver that would hold slotted screws but it was never that successfull.

I've had the cluster apart many times for various reasons and never really had a problem. The worst ones seem to be those that hold the pod into the dash. Many screws will be brass anyway so magnets are of no use. Blu Tack can be of use for inserting screws where you can't hold them by hand.

[JimMann]

RS Components do a huge range of screwdrivers, many with special features to ensure screws are captured to the driver. I used to have one that had an accessory attachment, now missing, that essentially gripped the screw when preparing it to install in its slot. I cannot locate that specific accessory, but it was a very simple Vee clamp that fitted to the shaft of the driver and the shank of the screw was captured between the 2 x Vee jaws.

For steel screws, the latest version appears to be called a Gripping Driver and the link below should take you to an example on the RS Components website:

https://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/screwdrivers/1763413

Hope this helps

Jim Mann

[JimMann]

The simple version looks like this and is called a screw holding screwdriver!

Screwdriver accessory.jpg (10.55KiB)Viewed 1703 times

[ptjs1]

As Jim says, there's quite a few designs for those types of screwdrivers. Just google "screw holding screwdriver" for options.

If its any consolation, I've taken the instrument cluster out a number of times and those corner screws are ok to remove.

Good luck

Paul

[PJAB]

Hi All

Thanks for the great replies - lots of useful advice - I’ll be able to search on the internet more efficiently now. I’ll post whatever I come up with for future reference.

Peter