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Hello forum! I have a 10mm bolt that is in a really hard-to-reach place. Not only is it hard to get to, there is almost no room to get a socket or box wrench onto it. I'm looking for a tool, a socket wrench of some kind, that will get into an extrememly small area where there's no room for a regular crescent wrench, or socket w/driver. Something like a worm drive ratchet attachment, with a super thin, low-profile socket on the end of it. Ever heard of such a thing?

 
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where is the 10mm bolt? is it on ur car somewhere?

pixs will help us help you.

 
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Just take my word for it its in a really tight space. I don't want to go through the trouble of finding my camera, taking pictures, choosing the right one, downloading it, resizing it, and uploading it to this forum, yuck to all that. Just imagine a very constricted working space to back out a bolt, that's burried down in the engine bay.

 
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You can get u-joints for socket extensions, they've never saved the day for me though.

I've had ratcheting box wrenches come in handy when you only have a few degrees of movement, but I don't know how your bolt is oriented.

If it's on your car, there's going to be a sensible (possibly long and laborous) way of getting it off without needing a magical tool.

 
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If its that difficult it might be that you need to remove other parts to gain access to the bolt. Without pictures its hard to give any sort of specific recommendations.

 
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"I need some kind of special tool for tight places... "

^ sounds so wrong in so many ways...

^This one too

 
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you guys are messed up

 
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What about a hand ratchet? I remember I needed one of these to put my lip on and it really came in handy. I'm not sure where it came from, but I found it in the old man's tool chest:

http://www2.westfalia.net/shops/elec...tchet_set.htm?

 
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I took it so far the wrong way when i read the title XD

 
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Crows Foot maybe ?

 
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What about one of those ratchets that the handle twists instead of spins?

 
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see thats the thing, if ur to lazy to help yourself, what makes you think some of the more knowledgeable members will give a dang to help you? especially with that kinda attitude.

we didnt ask for pictures to help ourselves you know. get my gist?

 
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^ Agreed. You really need to post pictures if you want people to help you find a tool thats actually going to work in your situation.

 
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yea, and maybe we can show u a the same solution from a different angle... lol duh.

 
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Sometimes if the space is especially tight a little lubricant on the shaft of your wrench will help it slide through a tight opening, I've been in a few spots where that was necessary.

 
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There's a specific reason why I don't want to send you pictures. It's because the "lazy" thing to do for forum "experts" or "managers" is, they get a picture and think they know everything and then tell me to try to do the job in a totally different way, sending me on a wild goose chase. They do this instead of just saying, "I don't know", which would be more helpful. If you don't know just say "I don't know" and don't try to out-think me on my own project!

For instance, how many times do you read a post where some guy's asking about something very specific and all he gets as a response is: "You shouldn't even be doing that in the first place." It's the default answer from any human being is "you shouldn't even be there in the first place". That kind of answer. Well that's a totally unhelpful answer.

If I provide pictures of what I'm doing I'm just inviting people to start telling me to do all this other crazy ****, when really, I just need to know what tools there are for getting into really tight spaces IN GENERAL.

I provide only the specific information I need to to get a specific type of answer that I need.

 
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Then i'll give you a specific answer:

We dont have a solution for you
kthnxbai

Dont give us an attitude when all we're doing is trying to help, we cant see how tight of a space it is, and how much room your working with.
And it's not a question like "How do i take apart my transmission to replace the clutch packs"

We need to know the approximate space you can work with in order to recommend the tool to use.

Will you get responses such as "You shouldnt take that apart"? Maybe
But then you will also get answers as "You should use this blah blah blah"

Just ignore the useless information.
It's called common sense

 
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So I guess getting a manual isn't going to help you either? This Civic forum has actually been the best in helping me out. If you're too lazy to use a camera with flash, maybe you should just take it to a mechanic and have them rake you over the coals. If you take your car in for a problem, you're gonna have to pretty much go through the same thing when the person who writes the RO gives it to a tech.

 
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To keep the conversation somewhat on topic, that's what as thinking..

To the issue at hand, you can't come on to a forum ask for advice, and when we try and genuinely help you, go on a rant about how our advice will prolly not help. We ask for pictures of the fastener in question because we've probably dealt with before or some similar situation. Seriously, there has to be a better explanation as to why you don't wanna post pics. As for it just being a "in general," thing, you stated in your original post that you had a 10mm bolt, so we know you have a specific issue.

These forums have helped me through some rough times dealing with my car, even dealing with issues like the one you have. The people trying to help you are being genuine. Don't be so quick to write us off because you're embarrassed of your project. That's the quickest way to get everyone else to refuse to give you advice in the future.

 
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sorry if my joking have been part of the reasons for the ranting (thought it was already answered, so i joked).
Anyway, another way is to go to a hardware/tools store and look around to see if you can locate what you need (that's what i usually do)

 
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You've already gotten a decent collection of ideas, serious or not, I would say it's alright considering we have zero concept of the geometry or space involved:

u-joints for socket extensions
ratcheting box wrenches
hand ratchet
Crows Foot
one of those ratchets that the handle twists instead of spins
a little lubricant on the shaft of your wrench

Now if all of these are totally infeasible and/or stupid, and you still want answers, you're going to have to provide a little more insight. Is your path to the bolt inline or from the side? Do you have to navigate past a blind corner? We're all assuming it's a hex bolt but what if it's a socket cap? Is there any way to hit it with a power tool?

So far my best bets are a ratcheting wrench or a crows foot with a socket wrench based on what kind of tool you want. Seriously both can operate with only a little bit of space for motion. Worm drive ratchet wrenchs do exist, but they tend to be industrially sized and pneumatic This one looks somewhat thin:


I'll give you all I've got, as I'm kinda bored right now. I'm assuming you're coming at the bolt from the side, otherwise it should be easy

1) Sturdy pair of needle-nose vice grips or mini vice grips. Somehow you're going to have to get them in there and apply your best death squeeze. Depending on the geometry and how tight you can get the vice grips you can push them around to loosen the bolt

2) If you've got a steady hand and some patience, JB Weld a piece of steel to the head of the bolt that you can grab or push around (think a handle). I have no guarantees this will work (you'll probably get impatient and break it before it's fully cured) and I have never used JB weld for bolts. Alls I know is that JB Weld is the ****ing ****.

3) This is what I'd do if I was still working on racecars, it was absolutely necessary to do it cleanly, and I was too sleep-deprived to come up with something simpler. Do you know a machinist? Find a thin sprocket (think the small gear on a bicycle cassette, but you can probably find something solid on Mcmaster). Weld or epoxy in a center if necessary, then machine out a profile that will mate with the bolt. A rectangular profile could work, you can do a hex in an EDM or waterjet. Get the gear slipped over the bolt, get your roller chain around it, and pull that sucker loose. If the sprocket is in a position to fall off, slap a flat magnet over it. Bicycle chain uses a #40 pitch (1/2'').


Further research reveals that mcmaster has babies like this with set screws, no machining required. They might be too thick. A half inch bore will fit right over 10mm bolt:

I'm pretty sure none of this is feasible for you, but maybe if you whine hard enough someone will invent a force-field magnetic flux versa-drive autoratchet wrench to do the job.

 
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lol. Will it go 88mph?

 
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Common misconception. You need to supply .582 jiggawatts in order to achieve 88mph with it. In order to time travel, you need to supply an additional .628 jiggawats.

 
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Lmfao, talk about jokes....

See, this is what happens. You could have posted a picture and we could have suggested the tool, and all of us could have moved on.

However, I will try to ignore the previous cocky comments about us, and try to honestly help you out

A tool that may be helpful for your situation might be this one that i have in my arsenal, as MelJ kindly stated to me was called a "Wratched offset wrench"

 
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well, he did say he couldn't fit a box end wrench on it, so that wouldn't work. I think I saw open ended wrenches with an almost ratcheting type mechanism on it (yes, on the open ended part). I've been trying to find them ever since I read the thread. I thought I saw them at sears with all the craftsman stuff, but I guess I was mistaken.. I'm still looking for them

I meant to post that up on text+ when I saw that pic, but I was working on my car at the time.. sorry Kenny.. lol

edit: found 'em. Chicago brand open ended ratcheting wrenches


$90 for a set

Here's a 10mm wrench for ya. $12.50

 
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lol eh, as i said, i dont know how much space he's actually working with, so that's my best card to play atm

 
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I'm hesitant about even contributing to this thread any further, but I will anyway. OP, try the tools that have been suggested to you since they are all very good options and work well in tight or hard to access spaces. If none of those work, then the problem isn't the tool it's the operator. Car companies don't put things in crazy places that are impossible to access without some sort of miracle tool, but as a result of inexperience people often take the wrong approach to accessing bolts in hard to reach places. A picture would allow us to guide you through the correct way to do something without having to make a series of guesses on the type of tool you might need. If you can't take that advice then you shouldn't come on forums. Just an example, the other day my friend was trying to change to O2 sensor on his jeep from underneath but couldn't get it, no tool would have helped him though because the correct way to do it was removing the air box and coming in from above.

 
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Wow! Thank you all for your patience and expertise in helping me. Actually what's going to work perfectly is the rotating-end socket driver. There are also some 1/4" and 3/8" worm drive extensions that I want to get too.

Sorry about being a big smartass earlier. And thanks so much for you guys' help in this matter. Especially my home boy up there, Mr. combinatorix. Thank you! Next time I won't be such a turkey

Long live the Civicforums.com,

Rockworthy

 
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That's a SWEET looking wrench. The good thing about it you only need a 10mm and 12mm and you can pretty well take the whole civic apart.

 
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And all is well on the interwebs.