Picked this up in the huge stash of stuff a month ago and finally unearthed it/.  It says"T-1   Made in USA   DC-86     MAC TOOLS  "  across the top.  It likely compresses something like a really large snap ring or spring, but I can't find anything on the web or the MAC pdf tool catalog.  Can anyone help with this strange but potentially useful tool?

Thanks

DM&FS

Can't help, but...it doesn't just compress it, it then holds it in place against serious pressure to turn it loose (thus the Vise-Grip type arrangement).  That inclines me to think that you're right about the thing being compressed being a spring.

I'll follow along on this one, waiting to find out what it is.  For bellows springs on a pipe organ...or the front axle hairpin spring on a 1938 Henway Light Four...or something like that.

Parking brake spring? So you can insert the cable in the pivot?

Now I'm curious as to what MAC says it is, assuming they respond to my email inquiry and photos I sent of it....maybe find out by the first of the year.


DM&FS

DWM,

I checked the 1952 MAC catalog and could not find that part number.  Nor could I find any tools with a DC prefix.

But it looks like it could be a valve spring compressor.  And, it looks like it could hold the spring compressed while you installed or removed the keepers.  Just a thought...

Good timing there Lauver!!  MAC responded via email today and that tool is a "dust cap/grease cap" remover, presumably from a recessed location.  Hence the DC before the 86.  They said they quit making the tool in 2002 and replaced it with a pair of pliers that does the same thing.    One more mystery solved before Santa comes!!!

DM&FS

I never knew there was such a tool.

I guess one more tool to add to my wishlist of tools. I mean eventually I gotta have one of every tool. LOL

Wow!! never would have guessed that!  still can't see how it would be used to remove dust caps by compressing?

I can only relate to VW style dust caps, but it wouldn't work for that applicaiton.  The tips have a slight recess in them and I could see where that would help extract one that was in a recess somewhere.

DM&FS

we usually think of vise grip as squeezing tight.

Perhaps these are  so you squeeze 'just enough' and no more, keeping you from crushing the tin cap.

Skip

>squeeze 'just enough' and no more

Don't overlook the possability that it didn't work very well, it was, after all, replaced with a different design....

Search this tool on ebay and see all the people confidently claiming it to be what it is not ;P

For another take on a dust cap removal tool, look at ( http://www.datamp.org/patents/displayPatent.php?number=2266511&typeCode=0 ).  Only the user's brain coordinating with hand strength  to control how much "squeeze" that one applies.

Quote from: mvwcnews on December 24, 2013, 09:45:08 PM
For another take on a dust cap removal tool, look at ( http://www.datamp.org/patents/displayPatent.php?number=2266511&typeCode=0 ).  Only the user's brain coordinating with hand strength  to control how much "squeeze" that one applies.

that looks a lot like the tools I used to be familiar with from my days as a grease monkey.

Quote from: Bill Houghton on December 25, 2013, 12:19:59 AM

Quote from: mvwcnews on December 24, 2013, 09:45:08 PM
For another take on a dust cap removal tool, look at ( http://www.datamp.org/patents/displayPatent.php?number=2266511&typeCode=0 ).  Only the user's brain coordinating with hand strength  to control how much "squeeze" that one applies.

that looks a lot like the tools I used to be familiar with from my days as a grease monkey.

Ditto!!  that or a slip jaw water pump pliers...

The slipjaw was what we used on the front wheel bearings on the VW's, after geting the micro cotter pin free of the speedo cable nub protruding on the driver's side front wheel.....my old Porsche was the same way. 

YMMV


DM&FS