what's a good all purpose (first) breaker bar? for drive belt, moving on to some fluid changes, and maybe some other DIY stuff later

there's a, 1/2" drive, 18 3/4 " and another 25" that's on sale now. i wanted to get the 25" cause it'll give more leverage, but is that maybe too long and will get in the way?

 

I have a 18" long 1/2" breaker bar and a 24" long 1/2" breaker bar.

Both used snap-on bars, I picked them up pretty cheap on ebay. Bought the snap-on bars so if they ever break I can get it replaced for free. I don't think I'd need anything else.

3/4" is pretty big, even the axle nut sockets on our cars are driven by 1/2" I don't think there's really a need for anything larger than 1/2" drive when working on our cars.

 

i have 2 breaker bars from autozone. both are 1/2" drive, one is 18" and one is 24" I've had both for 3-4 years now

the 18" is useful for most things like lug nuts, suspension bolts.
I bring out the 24" when its very tight like air impacted lug nuts, and it has a nice rubber handle so its more comfortable while putting in a lot of force. I actually used the 24" one added with 4' (yes, 4 feet) extension to remove my crank pulley bolt, worked great.

the 18" one is like $13, and the 24" is $20 something. they've been everything I needed for and more. What more can one ask for?

http://www.autozone.com/autozone/acc...fier=4261_0_0_

http://www.autozone.com/autozone/acc...er=560039_0_0_

 

i have autozone breaker bars as well.

the only one that ive had a problem with was the one with a ratchet head. although very convenient, forgo the ratchet styled head

 

harbor freight also has some nice breaker bars.

I would also not recommend a ratcheting one because the mechanism itself is huge. sometimes the thing you need to get to is in a tighter place. A ratcheting one is probably only really used on lugs.

 

Breaker bars aren't something I would break the bank buying just because its just a long piece of metal whose main purpose is in it's length for leverage. Anything should work so I bought the cheapest highest rated 18" one in amazon.

 

I have a napa one. Its an "evercraft" brand. Its nothing to write home about but it works fine and its cheap. I also have a long pipe I cut to slip over it for axel nuts and other things.

 

oh they two i'm looking at are both 1/2" drives. the lengths are 18 3/4" and 25" for $10 and $12, respectively, on sale right now from Princess Auto (Canadian store, dunno if it's in the US).

I guess if i buy the 18 3/4" bar, it should be good enough for most purposes, eh? i worry i won't even be able to get the 25" bar under my hood! i'm trying to get at the tensioner pulley right now to remove the drive belt, and hoping the bar can be used later for other things.

paperboy, how did your 4' extension even fit under the hood...?

 

It wasnt under the hood

 

the crank pulley bolt. is that not at the bottom of the engine? there's enough clearance that a 4' bar won't bump into the hood?

 

this is how it's done. it cannot be accessed from under the hood. This pic was taken before I took the 2nd half of the bar from the jack and put it on the breaker bar. At it's current length its alrdy about 4' at the tip.
I have two 12" extensions coming out too. One of them is an impact one from habor freight, and one is a standard one from autozone. The weakest point on this setup was obviously the extension. It was scary putting so much torque on the tools but I got the job done successfully.