Motor 2001 top 20 tools: The best of the best

Motor, Sep 2001

Ten years. A decade. Two hundred of the sickest, coolest, most ingenious tools and pieces of shop equipment on the planet. It's hard to believe, but this year's Top 20 Tools competition represents a major milestone for us-our tenth successive year of picking the very best new offerings from the world's tool makers and equipment manufacturers. The selection process wasn't easy-it never is when you have to whittle hundreds of candidates down to an elite 20-but, as usual, we had a blast doing it!

Electronics Acupuncture Probe Set by Automotive Electronics Services

You've been a scope user for years and have a drawer full of accessories to catch those all-important waves. But have you noticed something different about today's high-density connectors? They're a lot smaller, with the pins closer together, which means your standard-size backpinning probes are in for a rough go trying to acquire a signal.

Some techs try to force the issue by jamming a probe tip into the small cavity of the connector in an effort to make a solid connection. Result? They break off the tip and are out a ten buck (maybe more) probe, or they've trashed the connector and need to solder in another. Neither scenario is very appealing.

Scope guru Jorge Menchu and the boys at AES are aware of the shortcomings of traditional backpinning probes and have come up with a radical alternative. Called the Electronics Acupuncture Probe (EAP), this ingenious little gizmo uses a common straight pin encapsulated in a slim-profile insulated jacket that accommodates any test lead with a standard 4mm banana plug. The pin is ultra-sharp for easy penetration into any size connector cavity, can be bent to shape and, best of all, is field-repairable--if it gets dull or breaks, simply remove the setscrew from the jacket, pull out the old pin, insert a new one, reinstall the setscrew and you're ready for the next go-round. Slick, or what?

The probes come five to a set and are packaged in a sturdy plastic case, which includes five extra setscrews and boots, plus a slew of replacement pins that should last a lifetime. And if they don't? Hey, you can always raid your wife's sewing box!

Fuel Composition Tester by Kent-Moore

Have you ever spent hours trying to diagnose a driveability problem, only to find that bad fuel was the culprit? We're sure you have. And so, obviously, have the boys at Kent-- Moore.

K-M returns to the Top 20 ranks this year with a nifty gadget that analyzes both fuel quality and contaminant content. Called the J-44175 Fuel Composition Tester, it's a hand-held tool that uses a microprocessor to quickly and accurately determine the purity of both straight gasoline and gasoline/ethanol blends. The tester was originally designed for use by GM dealers working with alternate-fuel vehicles, but we think it has far broader appeal than that.

The J-44175 is used, together with DMM, to determine the quality and alcohol percentages in any fuel sample. To analyze a sample, just add a small portion of fuel (as little as 10 milliliter) to the testing reservoir, then set the DMM to the specified scale. The frequency reading corresponds to the percentage of alcohol present in the fuel.

When testing E85 (a fuel containing 85% ethanol) and nonblended fuels (normal gasoline), the tester's read LED will light up if the fuel contains contaminants such as water or methanol.

The J-44175 Fuel Composition Tester is simple and easy to use--no fuss, no more guesswork. It comes with an operator's manual and a protective case.

WebSpecs Specification Database by Hunter Engineering

A brand-new vehicle hits a pothole and comes into your shop needing an alignment. Problem is, you don't have the specs. What do you do? Guess? Use last year's alignment specifications? Keep the vehicle until you make some calls and get the right information? Turn the vehicle away? Hunter Engineering offers a better choice.

For those shops utilizing the company's 611 Series aligner with WinAlign software, a new option has been introduced. Called the WebSpecs Specification Database, it's an integrated library of alignment specifications that can be retrieved, then stored on the aligner's hard drive. Here's how it works:

If a vehicle needs service before your shop has the latest specs, your technician simply goes to the dedicated WebSpecs site on the Internet and downloads the information. The specifications are then automatically stored in the aligner for future reference. It takes only a minute or two to grab the update, and-best of all-your tech never has to leave the aligner to do it!

But there's more. Once at the WebSpecs Internet site, your tech can click on a camera icon and view line drawings indicating where the adjusters are for a particular vehicle and how to make the adjustments. Aligners equipped with a digital photo option can also access multiple images showing detailed views of the components for that vehicle.

Hunter applies the most recent information from the car manufacturers to the WebSpecs site as soon as they receive it, and it's available to WebSpecs users immediately. If you've got a Hunter 611 aligner, adding WebSpecs is a no-brainer.