Travel tools

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Green Bean said:
I am preparing to travel to Washington state to pick up my 383 Valiant and was wondering what size sockets and wrenches to take with me. I am driving back to Florida. I am limited to 100 lbs of luggage on the train so eliminating unneeded sizes would be good. The aluminum floor jack and jack stands take up almost half of that.
What is the largest size wrench/socket that would be needed?
Are there any of the intermediate sizes that are not used? For example, on air-cooled VWs, you don’t need the even sized metric wrenches except for the 8 and 10 mm.
I am new to Mopars. I have a fairly extensive set of SAE (and metric) tools.
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A typical 3/8” drive SAE socket set with a Ujoint and couple of extensions will cover 98% of your needs on a ‘65-‘75 Mopar car. About the only thing larger than 3/4” would be the oil drain plug (possibly 7/8”) and the harmonic balancer bolt on the engine (1-1/16”?? if memory serves). A piece of pipe for the wrench handle for “persuasion” is a good thing.
If you might be working under the dash a 1/4” SAE socket set would also be good and takes very little additional space and weight.
There will be no metric anything on a pre-1975 Mopar.
I swear by my rechargeable 18v Milwaukee 1/2” drive impact wrench and take it on all trips now. With 1/2” SAE impact sockets.
Electrical tools (multimeter, stripper/crimper, etc) would also be good, especially if the car is not known to have been a daily driver. A set of wiring diagrams (maybe on your phone) too.
I personally think if you must have a floor jack and stands it would be much wiser to buy them there (Harbor Freight or Northern Tool or even WalMart) than to haul those big heavy things with you. Driving home there is no weight limit.
Inspect tires carefully (all five!) and replace if they are old, cracking, or low tread. You are planning on a long drive and good tires are essential. Some tire sizes for older cars are getting difficult to find; I just replaced the tires on my ‘73 Dart and used P195/75R14 (hard to find), the originals were D78-14 (P185/75R14) (impossible to find) but I have a /6, yours probably had/has larger/wider tires.
If the ignition is original I would bring a spare ballast resistor, electronic ignition unit (or points, rotor, and condenser). Other than that it’s too hard to predict what you might need and you can’t bring a semi to haul spare parts.
Good luck and post some pictures of the car and your trip.
 
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Mojoe9955 said:
Good idea. Buy a new jack, stands and a cheap tool kit like Rustys there. If you dont use them, return them when you get home.
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Seconded! Or “thirded”…..

When I drove my new (to me) truck from Portland, OR to Mpls I stopped at an O’Rielly’s and, along with a few other things, I bought a set of tire chains, as I had to drive through the mountains passes. In January.

But before I bought them I made damn sure I could return them in Mpls if I didn’t use them.

And I didn’t, so I did!
 
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halifaxhops said:
3/8-3/4 wrenches and sockets. Screwdrivers, pliers and a volt meter. Point/cond, ballast, ecu if it is electronic. Can go on and on here. Good luck your brave doing this ride in a car new to you. Why the floor jack and stands? No jack in the car?
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Why not buy new, before leaving there instead of shipping, and save the weight.
Other tools to include, if its a points distributor, I always include(anyway) a "Diamond Deb" Nail File, a stainless steel file coated with industrial Diamonds. Available at any make-up department or online, of course. They come in 4" and 8" lengths, 4" great on the road, as you can file the ignition points without removing the distributor. A new one is really aggressive, so hold it flat on each point face separately.
Small SS welding brush can help with corrosion on sides of points. Some times a dog toothbrush(small end) can help, too.
We took both on vintage boat trips, as you could get stranded with the then available Aut-o-lite conversions, so we still used points. Carried a set as spare, too. And a spare coil.
 
Dana67Dart said:
What do you plan on doing when you get there?

If your pulling out of the weeds and loading it on a trailer you don't need much.

If your planning on driving it home, and it's not a confirmed drivable car that's another.

If your planning on being on the next episode of Roadkill, that's yet another.

You can buy for relatively little money cheap tools in Washington. Not to mention parts tec.
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1-1/4 inch socket to be able to turn engine over. And ratchet to turn it. Take a 12 point socket, if you only have 1/2 breaker bar in kit.
(need for wheels).
 
I don't think I saw anyone mention it but you might want to take some fuses along.
 
...or a box of these universal amperage fuses.
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