At 10:35 PM 3/17/2004, J. Harvey wrote:
>I'm looking to buy a metric tap & die set.  What are the most
>common/important threads to have with respect to a Vanagon?
>
> From what I've found in the archives 14x1.5 (shift knob, wheel lugs, oil
>drain plug) and 10x1.5 ('engine bolts') are good ones to have.  Does ETKA
>specify fasteners?

6x1, 8x1.25, 10x1.5 cover most things (metric coarse series).  Personally I
wouldn't worry about the 14 until there was a reason.  And unless you have
other metric uses, I'd buy the pieces separately.  Good taps and dies are
shockingly expensive, even in sets.  The cheap sets I've looked at were
really really really really bad, you wonder why they bothered.  For
thread-chasing I'd get a plug tap and a bottoming tap in 6,8,10 and
hexagonal chasing dies ditto.  I wouldn't bother with taper taps unless
you're planning to actually tap some holes.  I have only plug taps which
are the readily available type; if I need a bottoming tap I can grind the
end off -- carefully so as not to overheat it as mine are not high-speed
steel.  The Hanson brand carried at Pep Boys work fine for chasing; I
haven't tried actual tapping but they seem well-made and I'd expect them to
be ok.  www.jlindustrial.com and www.mscdirect.com are sources with a
dizzying variety of types: cutting taps, forming taps, gun taps, spiral taps...

Incidentally, a box of metric 8.8 bolts at Pep Boys seems to cost about the
same as 3-4 individual ones...

david

--
David Beierl - Providence RI USA -- http://pws.prserv.net/synergy/Vanagon/
'84 Westy "Dutiful Passage"
'85 GL "Poor Relation"