Missing tools

One of the things that's always bugged me is that my car was missing the spare tire, owner's manual, tool roll and jack kit. I'm glad that the rest of the car was as complete as it was, but these are the little details that just make things complete. When I got my new wheels and tires, I was able to use one of the old ones as a spare so I'm good there. I'd like to find a set of original tools, but I've seen these things sell for as much as $1500--used! The pouch itself goes for $300! Yeow! The wrenches and screwdrivers that came in them are pretty cheesy and the original pouch was vinyl. Rather than break the bank to get a set of original tools, I figured I'd just make do with something that looks somewhat original.

The early 308 tool roll is supposed to contain a set of metric open end wrenches, a few screwdrivers, a spark plug wrench, a pair of pliers and something known as a "carb tool." I've done a lot of searching, but no one seems to know what this mysterious carb tool is. It's a small tool that can fit in the palm of your hand. It's shaped like a cross and it has hex ends on either end. There's been a lot of talk on F-chat about this tool but no one seems to know what it's used for. I brought up the subject again and finally we figured it out. It's an 8mm hex wrench for loosening the nuts that hold the carb air horns on. That's the only thing that makes sense since there are no other 8mm hex fasteners on the carbs. I looked at pictures of the original tool again and something dawned on me. I've seen a tool like that before. In fact, I OWN a tool like that. I ran out to the shop and started digging around in my old random bicycle stuff and there it was.



I've had this wrench for at least 25 years. It came with my first pair of clipless pedals. The wrench was used to tighten the cleat onto the bottoms of my shoes. I measured the hex and sure enough, it is 8mm. I opened the 308's bonnet, removed the air cleaner cover and voila! The wrench is a perfect fit. The shaft is even a small enough diameter to fit perfectly in the cutout at the top of the air horn.



Most people use either a deep socket (I do) or a nut driver to remove the air horns. I don't know that I'd ever use my new-found tool for this job, but it's certainly a good start to assembling my own nearly-original tool roll. A few months ago, a co-worker made me a tool pouch from black leather and it looks like the real deal. Now I need to find some wrenches and screwdrivers that are reasonable facsimiles. I'll probably end up buying an original spark plug tool though. That's a piece that's exactly the right size and length with a u-joint in just the right spot to reach down into the spark plug holes.

That's just the tool roll...then onto the jack kit, which is also missing...