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MG Midget and Sprite Technical - Cheaper bullet insertion tool

Here's an idea to save a few pennies.
One can buy a natty little "special tool" for inserting electrical bullets into their connectors. A bit fancy perhaps but they do ensure that the connections are well seated. I was going to buy a pair but at £24 (Amazon price) that seemed a bit of an extravagance to me, being tight fisted as I am.


GuyW

Searching around, I found some as cheap as £16 that look the same, but wondered if they were Putty Pliers and would bend at first use.

But Screwfix sell a cheap pair of small water pump pliers at just £3.99 and 20 seconds with a slitting disk in the angle grinder and I have a nice set of bullet insertion pliers!


GuyW

With the plus point that they will still work well enough as water pump pliers as well!

£3-99 for a special tool that one would only use once or twice in a blue moon seems about right to me.


GuyW

Well done Guy.

They might sometimes be more difficult to get up behind the dash to fix things in situ - or there again other times they might be easier.

And to add insult to injury I've got a pair (not those in first photo) that you could have had for free!

Anyone else that wants them can have them.
Nigel Atkins

Ooooh, yes please.
Dave O'Neill 2

I knew you had a pair Nigel, and had an idea that you had once before offered them to anyone that might want them. I rather assumed that offer would have been snapped up long ago!

The pump pliers I have used are 8 1/2", a bit smaller than the normal 10" or 12" variety. I doubt they would handle proper macho plumbers' pump type use but they are neat enough for getting at bullet connectors in awkward corners.

I have, incidentally, wired my dash on a sub loom so it can all be connected up pre-wired before the dash is fitted in the car, and then a single multiplug connects it into the main loom. That is, apart from the wiring that goes to the wiper motor. Remember this is MK 1 Sprite so the wiring behind there is a lot simpler than on the later cars.
GuyW

There you go Nigel! Dave deserves them. He is always being helpful on here.
GuyW

No one takes up my offers for some reason, I've never worked out why. :)

Even the only two mates I have in the whole world didn't want them.

I'm surprise you've converted all connectors away from bullets.
Nigel Atkins

ETA: from previous post -
it should have read -
>>I'm surprise you've - not - converted all connectors away from bullets.<<
damned keyboard can't write

Dave,
if you wasn't joking just email me. I know they're in the shed where I left them a couple of years back as I saw them the other day.

They are as below - no that's not my hand I don't have manicured nails, I bite mine, as I'm always anxious as to what will fall off the midget next.



Nigel Atkins

On this side of the pond we call water pump pliers "channel locks" or "Channellocks" (which is a brand name) of which I have three pairs, all found by the side of the road while cycling. Can't beat the price.

And what you call mole grips we call vise grips while a Stillson wrench is a pipe wrench.

As Mark Twain said, "England and the US, two countries divided by a common language".
Martin

Martian, what we call water pump pliers and you call pliers have a different name if you work offshore, as I did for decades. There they are known (mysteriously) as Hen's Legs.

Nope, me neither.

Guy, nice idea.
Greybeard

Hen's Legs, or Hinnie's legs. (Tyneside)

Might explain it to you Grey, if you use your imagination.
GuyW

Nice idea Guy, and certainly better than my method of fingers and the end of a screw driver.

I might just copy that ;)
Chris Madge

Chris, I have used that method for years, and have the scars to proove it. It's surprising what painful damage a small electrical screwdriver can do to the ends of one's fingers!
GuyW

I too may copy your idea Guy assuming you don't yet have copyright ;-)
You'd think, originally having an electrical background, I might have the correct tool but, alas, no. I don't have circlip pliers either!
Bill Bretherton

Bill how on earth have you managed without circlip pliers ?!!


Guy I have only had my Midget for just under two years and I already have a few scars. I'm also still buying tools too, which I suspect is a never ending quest !
Chris Madge

Chris, I use long nose pliers but specific circlip ones would be better of course. Perhaps I'll get some Screwfix ones.
Bill Bretherton

The Screwfix ones with interchangeable heads are remarkably similar to my Drapers.
Dave O'Neill 2

I got a set in a Saturday market stall years ago. Sort of place that sells everything at £1 each. Pretty well identical to those £4.99 screwfix ones. Recommended, very useful!
GuyW

One of the land rover magazines tested the pliers in Guy's original post and they bent on the first use. Pretty crap really.
graeme jackson

If it's the ones in the first post that bent then they were cheaper copies. I bought those to use, instead of the set which I posted a photo of, and those are sturdy enough (not as sturdy as the other set though).

If it was a car jurno that bust them then I wouldn't be surprised as all the male jurnos I've meet couldn't be trusted to tie their own shoelaces without strangling themselves, and careless with other people's property.
Nigel Atkins

This thread was discussed between 17/10/2019 and 28/10/2019

MG Midget and Sprite Technical index

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