My free Snap-on wrench

[MaximRecoil]

Driving home last night in my '69 I heard a metallic rattling sound coming from the passenger side of the frontend. I parked it in front of my house with the two passenger side tires up on the sidewalk, and I started to crawl underneath. I immediately noticed a wrench laying in there at an angle, up by the shock, resting in the shock tower area. It was a 3/4" Snap-on Flank Drive Plus combination wrench, part number SOEX24, which sells for $42.75 on Snap-on's website.



I assumed it belonged to my mechanic friend Dave. I tinker on my car most everyday at his garage, and I use his tools, most of which are Snap-on. But for the life of me I couldn't recall doing anything to my car recently that would have called for a 3/4" wrench.

So today when I went up to the garage, I walked by Dave holding the wrench and said, "Did you know you were missing this?" He barely glanced at it and said, "Not yet."

As I put it in his wrench drawer, I noticed it looked very out of place. It was way too shiny and new looking. All of Dave's wrenches are old and very well-used, and the former mirror-like chrome finish now looks more like a matte brushed chrome. Also, none of them are "Flank Drive"; they are too old for that. Plus, long ago Dave marked all of his wrenches and ratchets by grinding a couple of small grooves in the handles, and this wrench I'd found had no such markings.

I took the wrench back out to Dave and said, "When did you get this wrench? Look how new it looks, and I didn't know you had any of these newer style 'Flank Drive' wrenches." He looked the wrench over and said, "I don't think this is my wrench ... no, this isn't my wrench. I don't have any wrenches like this ... unless it is out of my new set ..." So we went to look at his new set of wrenches which he's had in a drawer for years and has hardly ever used, but none were missing. Plus they were metric and branded "Blue-Point".

So for now it remains a mystery as to where this wrench came from.

[burnout.dawg]

Well! That truly is a mystery I found a screwdriver once in my engine compartment which definitely was not mine. No idea how long it had been hitching a ride in there.

[tsmithae]

My free wrench wasn't nearly as nice as that! I found mine in my front bumper ('70) and it was some no-name.

[MaximRecoil]

Well! That truly is a mystery I found a screwdriver once in my engine compartment which definitely was not mine. No idea how long it had been hitching a ride in there.

Was it a good screwdriver?

My free wrench wasn't nearly as nice as that! I found mine in my front bumper ('70) and it was some no-name.

No-name rusty wrenches like that can come in handy though. They are good to loan out when someone who's not the most trustworthy person you know wants to borrow a wrench, and they are also good to cut up and weld into a makeshift specialty tool for those times when none of the tools you have onhand are quite right for the situation.

[Silver R/T]

Trunk extensions in my 68 Charger were full of "goodies" I think I found a couple of screwdrivers in there, some rust/trash and old rusty scissors.

[MaximRecoil]

Today Dave came up with a theory about the wrench. He thinks it must belong to the guy at the dealership that did my front-end alignment, also noting that 3/4" is the size wrench you would use on the eccentric cam bolts, which are located right around the area that I found the wrench.

I guess he's probably right, given that no one else other than him or me has ever worked on that car in the years that I've owned it. But the strange thing is, they did that frontend alignment about 2 months ago, and I've driven it daily and worked on it many times since then, including work underneath in the front. How is it that I never heard it rattling or saw it under there before last night? For that matter, how is it that it never fell out onto the road? It was a 20 minute drive just coming home from the dealership, and like I said, I've driven it every day since, including going over a very bumpy road daily.

In any event, I'll call the dealership on Monday and ask to speak to the guy that did my alignment. I'll ask him if he had a tool go missing a couple of months ago, and if so, if he tells me that it is a 3/4" Snap-on wrench that he's missing, I'll return it to him, though I'm not going to make a special trip to do so. I'll give him the option of picking it up at my house if he wants it sooner.

[Mopar Nut]

I had the same thing happen on my new car. The dealer was doing warranty work and forgot to tighten the bolts.

[MaximRecoil]

Fortunately all my bolts were tight.

[Mopar Nut]

That's good news, mine were just hand tightened.

[Dino]

I did the opposite once and left a wrench in a customer's car.  He returned it when he first drove his freshly restored car and heard a clunk in the back.   

I dropped a 7/16 craftsman wrench in the engine bay last year when fixing the header leak.  It never hit the ground and I couldn't find it.  So I drove it around the sub until it fell out.  Still don't know where that sucker was hiding.

[Brock Lee]

I found an old Snap On screwdriver in my current '69 when i took out the back seat. Wish it was a wrench, but still a nice freebie.

[MaximRecoil]

I had to say goodbye to the wrench. The rightful owner from the Chrysler dealership came and picked it up today. He said he'd only bought that wrench about a month before he lost it, and had no idea where it had gone. He was amazed that it had stayed in the shock tower area of my car for two months of driving it every day.

[ws23rt]

I had to say goodbye to the wrench. The rightful owner from the Chrysler dealership came and picked it up today. He said he'd only bought that wrench about a month before he lost it, and had no idea where it had gone. He was amazed that it had stayed in the shock tower area of my car for two months of driving it every day.

That was a very pleasant and neighborly thing of you to do.

What a great place this is to live in when people like you are friendly and fair in how they conduct themselves with others.

I'm sure you made another friend because of this.  Who knows--he may do something for you when you really need it sometime

[Mopar Nut]

That was a very pleasant and neighborly thing of you to do.

What a great place this is to live in when people like you are friendly and fair in how they conduct themselves with others.

I'm sure you made another friend because of this.  Who knows--he may do something for you when you really need it sometime

[MaximRecoil]

I'm sure you made another friend because of this.  Who knows--he may do something for you when you really need it sometime

As it turned out, he grew up in my hometown and we went to school together, but he was a grade ahead of me and we didn't know each other. We talked for a while about my car (he's a fan of old Mopars, more so than the new Mopars that he works on every day), and before he left he thanked me again for returning his wrench and said maybe he'd stop by with beers sometime. But earlier he mentioned he's working 50 hours a week at the dealership and recently inherited a farm that he's trying to run too, so I doubt he has much free time.

[tsmithae]

Good on you! I'm so glad to hear that people like you aren't completely extinct.

[ws23rt]

I'm sure you made another friend because of this.  Who knows--he may do something for you when you really need it sometime

As it turned out, he grew up in my hometown and we went to school together, but he was a grade ahead of me and we didn't know each other. We talked for a while about my car (he's a fan of old Mopars, more so than the new Mopars that he works on every day), and before he left he thanked me again for returning his wrench and said maybe he'd stop by with beers sometime. But earlier he mentioned he's working 50 hours a week at the dealership and recently inherited a farm that he's trying to run too, so I doubt he has much free time.

I wonder if he were to come to know the Maxim we know if you would ever hear from him again

We are people just like him.  Do you talk to people face to face like you talk to us?---I think not--- Why is that?

[MaximRecoil]

I wonder if he were to come to know the Maxim we know if you would ever hear from him again

We are people just like him.  Do you talk to people face to face like you talk to us?---I think not--- Why is that?

I always talk to people in a manner commensurate with how they talk to me. I've told you this before, more than once. Let me know when it manages to penetrate your drop-forged, case-hardened forehead.

Now, go stir the pot somewhere else. You don't know me, and neither does anyone else on this forum. In typical ankle-biter fashion, your post is utterly irrelevant to this thread.

[ws23rt]

I wonder if he were to come to know the Maxim we know if you would ever hear from him again

We are people just like him.  Do you talk to people face to face like you talk to us?---I think not--- Why is that?

I always talk to people in a manner commensurate with how they talk to me.

Now, go stir the pot somewhere else. You don't know me, and neither does anyone else on this forum. In typical ankle-biter fashion, your post is utterly irrelevant to this thread.

It has gone without saying it----I don't know you and you don't know me----You don't know those that you have insulted over and over.
Kind of like driving in traffic---Those are other cars around you not people.

So you tell me to go stir the pot somewhere else?   Do you honestly expect me to just pick up my spoon and move on?
Whether or not this has any thing to do with this thread means nothing compared to what the forum has been subjected to from you.
Your position that it is not of your doing does not change the fact.

Biting an ankle is just an appetizer when it comes to finding the best way to peace on this site.

[MaximRecoil]

It has gone without saying it----I don't know you and you don't know me----You don't know those that you have insulted over and over.

Still not getting through that industrial strength forehead of yours, is it? I suggest you look up the word "commensurate". You can't produce a single example of me issuing an insult or otherwise uncivil remark that wasn't in response to an insult or otherwise uncivil remark.

So you tell me to go stir the pot somewhere else?   Do you honestly expect me to just pick up my spoon and move on?
Whether or not this has any thing to do with this thread means nothing compared to what the forum has been subjected to from you.
Your position that it is not of your doing does not change the fact.

You've just admitted to being a "troll", simpleton, and it is not the first time you've admitted it. You're also an ankle-biter, which is inherently pathetic (i.e., being obsessed with a stranger online to the point that you continually follow him around trying to nip at his ankles is hilariously pathetic). Given that you're a twice-admitted troll, the part that I bolded is pure irony.

Biting an ankle is just an appetizer when it comes to finding the best way to peace on this site.

And here you are, admittedly stirring the pot / trolling. This is of course, more comical irony, given that it was a perfectly "peaceful" thread until you inserted your plug nickel's worth.

By the way, you know that the term "ankle-biter" is a comparison to tiny little dogs, right? You know, like Chihuahuas and teacup poodles?

[burnout.dawg]

So...its not your free Snap-on wrench anymore? Bummer...

[MOPAR FANATIC]

  i  think i'll go back to c.c.com now after reading this thread.geeeeeeeeeez..................... 

[Lighthorseman]

I dropped a 7/16 craftsman wrench in the engine bay last year when fixing the header leak.  It never hit the ground and I couldn't find it.  So I drove it around the sub until it fell out.  Still don't know where that sucker was hiding.

That's exactly where I'm sitting.  While prepping the engine for removal, I dropped the thing into the engine bay, and it didn't hit the ground.  Even better, about a month later, once I pulled the engine and transmission,  I still couldn't find it.  It's going to be interesting to see if it ever turns up.