Hib Halverson
Ah, the Internet…
We tool freaks love it because there’s no end to the nifty stuff you can find. I had a brake hose project to do and was looking around in the web for some offset flare nut wrenches. I already have some non-offset flare nut wrenches and I have some crow foot flare nut wrenches but, for this job, an offset wrench was needed.
A little searching led me to the GearWrench site where I found flex-head, flare nut wrenches in both SAE and metric sizes. Actually, a flex-head wrench was even better for what I wanted to do because it allows a large variety of offsets making it easy to access this one fitting I need to loosen to change the hoses.
The SAE set covers 1/4 to 7/8-in flare nuts with five wrenches and the metric set covers 9-21-mm flare nuts with six wrenches. These tools are nicely finished and feel good in your hands. The wrench hexes are chamfered making them easier to get onto a nut. The feature I like the most is the offset heads will flex a little over 90° allowing one to reach difficult-to-access nuts more easily. The flex heads have a tensioning screw which would allow one to “tighten” the head after many years of use had the tension going away. Both GearWrech flex-head, flare nut wrench sets come in heavy-duty plastic “v-racks” for easy storage if you choose not to put them in your toolbox’s wrench drawer.
These flare nut wrench sets are covered under GearWrench’s limited lifetime warranty. You can get them on the GearWrench web site. Also, Amazon sells them.
Want more info? Visit the GearWrench web site
