What tools I use as a motorcycle mechanic! Butler Customs

Now a question I get asked quite a bit as a motorcycle mechanic is, hey, I wanna get into this kind of stuff. What tools, what are the essentials that I need? So this video is all about tools that I have, that I use. Guess what I would consider the essentials. Welcome back to Butler Customs Motorcycle Shop. So what you're seeing here in these three carts are pretty much every single tool that I own. Now for years, I just had this one cart here. And then my son-in-law, who is a heavy machinery mechanic, upgraded and gave me these on a nice little rolling cart. So I really kind of got to stretch my legs out when it came to tools. But for years and years, I just had this Harbor Freight US General tool cart. I started very simple. I would always just buy the tools that I needed, that I knew I might use again, but I wouldn't go out. I wouldn't suggest to you to go out and spend $10,000 on tools. I would just use the tools that you need. And then as you need a tool, go buy a tool. That's exactly what I did. So let me get your nose in here up and close. It's nothing fancy, but everything I do in this shop is right here in these carts. Now I do have some machinery and some upgraded things and some specialty tools that are important that we'll walk through. So almost everything you're gonna see me use of my tools is 90% Harbor Freight tools. These little Pittsburgh tools, I really like them. They have been very good tools. What I started out with was this cart and I went to Harbor Freight and bought a mechanics set. Now it wasn't the most, the big, big one. I think it was like the 300 and something piece. And back then it was, I think, I got it on sale for 120 bucks, 150 bucks. And that was years and years ago. And all I did, it just, you know, it came in like a big case and then it had dividers you could take out. So this divider you see here is that divider. It's one of the dividers I just set in the top of this tool cart. So these sockets and ratchets and stuff, I have literally had the entire time I've been in business. Same ones. I've never had them to break. I've never had them to round off. I have used them with impact guns. I have used them with just ratchets. I've been, you know, using them. The kit comes, came with ratchets kind of like this, the metal ones. And when you're working out in the cold and stuff, or if you're working outside and you leave this outside, it's gonna get super hot. So personally, I like the kind of rubber handled ones. So I did go and buy this. Of course, you know, it's been through the wringer. Bought that one as well. Again, it's a Pittsburgh. This one as well. Again, it's a Harbor Freight one, I think. I don't know what it is. Maybe a Pittsburgh. So I like the feel of the rubber handle ones the best, but this is that mechanic set that I just sent in there. I took some magnetic strips and just bolted them up to this. And then I hang all my snips and pliers and adjustable wrenches, things like that. I just hang up there so I can grab them real quick. This is of course Harbor Freight. I bought this. And I will say, I really don't use these much. I'm missing a couple. And these have the rounded tips. And they're good to get into an angle that you can't go straight on in, but they're really weak. And so I usually don't use this much unless I'm setting something that just needs a little turn. Of course, I've got breaker bars in here. That's a Titan. Don't know where I got that. Then I did some work on a fella's bike and he was a car mechanic. And so we did a big motor upgrade for him and he gave me a lot of his old tools. So if you see something snap-on or something high quality, I didn't buy that. I just bargained for it, especially snap-on. I sure can't afford that. So this torque wrench, I don't know the brand of it. I don't know. It's a nice torque wrench. It's been very true and very precise. I know these need to be calibrated every now and then, but this came from his set. If you know what this is, let me know. I guess I could call him and ask him, but the labels wore off. But this is my good one. Then I have a Harbor Freight one that's for the small sockets. But it's not, I don't like these. Sometimes they'll click, sometimes they won't. You gotta be super careful. I bought them in a set. So this is the bigger size, 3-8s. But I don't ever use this because I have this nice one here. I got my eyes on a set of digital ones from Amazon. And so I'm probably gonna upgrade to that and retire these, give these away, maybe keep this one as a backup. But I'd like to go with the digital ones. Got the little beep, that'd be really nice. Instead of relying on a click, you know? So in this drawer here, I have all my standards. I know it's a mess. I know most guys have them all laid out in a nice row down into some, I mean, it looks like a gun case when you open it up. I know this is chaotic, but when you're wrenching for as long as some mechanics have, when you go to grab a wrench, you really don't even look at the size. When you do it long enough and you look at the bolt head, you can come over here and say, that's a three-quarter, and it is. So you kind of, I know it's a mess in here, but you kind of know what you're grabbing. That's a 7-16 without even looking at it. Yep, it is. There's a half inch. You just kind of learn to know the sizes. That's 11-16 there, yep. So it's easy to kind of grab. Also in here, I have some of my little cutoffs that I need to get into tight spaces with. I keep those in here. And then my big Allen headsets that fit for this socket, I just keep over here. They're all standard. I don't have really a rack for them. On this side, same thing, but except it is metric. So I don't really deal a lot with metric. That's why this looks a lot thinner than this over here. Again, all these you're gonna find are Pittsburgh tools. If there's some, any kind of different ones, a Blackhawk, they're just ones I've picked up along the way. Somebody's given me a PM, I don't know what that is. This was given to me, mechanic's choice. My next drawer here is what I call the junk drawer. Every man has a junk drawer, either in the house or in the shop. And this is my junk drawer. So in this, I keep just random stuff. My picks, my prize, my valve wiping stuff, tape measure, all my Sharpies, chalk pen, just all my gasket stuff, anything like that. Masking tape, 3M emblem tape, things like that. Filler gauge and spark plug gauge. So I know where that's at. My next drawer down, I really don't ever use. It's got zip ties and I need more zip ties. Well, I got some of that in there. Metal zip ties, plastic zip ties. That's a thread cert. This I use, check the depth of all of my pistons. And then I have these torques here, but I've got another set of torques, so I really don't ever use these down here. So this drawer hardly ever gets open. And then down in the bottom, I've just got some pry clamps. I've got a neck bearing puller. I got some breaker bars and a big pipe wrench. That's all I've got down there. Now in this cart, I just keep things up here that I can grab easy. My oil cans, extra ratchets if I need them. My nice snap-on light. And the reason I have this up here is that this battery goes to my big impact as well. I keep my big impact down here and a lot of specialty tools. My vice grips, adjustable wrenches, another little light. You can clip on things. Some of these soldering connectors because they don't fit down in here. That's pretty much it. This drawer is kind of bare. So that's a steering wheel puller that I use to pull things with also. Some little snips. I need to put those up on things so I can grab these because these work a little bit better. I use these for rubber hoses, but I've got a nicer rubber hose thing too. And here I keep my multimeter and all the accessories for that. Then here's all my electrical stuff. So I have soldering irons, soldering flux, all of my heat shrink. And then of course these, I love these. And so I have some big ones up there because they won't fit down here. My spark plug tester or wire snips. So every kind of thing electrical, I'll just kind of keep down in here. My next drawer has some specialty tools in it. So this is gonna be a chain breaker and a rivet tool. And I just broke that, speaking of breaker. But this is a heavy duty one. I think I got this off of Amazon. And so it's really nice to have for those stubborn breaks. This is an icon set. I believe I got this at Harbor Freight, if I'm not mistaken. And it's my snap pliers. I use these quite a bit. Some I have shaved down to fit certain things. And then this here is my wheel bearing remover. And so to pull wheel bearings, this is really, really handy to have. It's got different size bearings. And this tool, you just put it in there and just pull them out. They're really, really nice. I think I got this off of Amazon. It's a Pit Boss VT-102 is the part number. Harley-Davidson wheel bearing remover and installer. Now down here, of course I have my newest tool, which is my bore scope. And I love this thing. So, so nice. That's why it looks so nice. It's my newest tool. Piston ring compressor set. I use this quite a bit too. Very, very handy to have. Helps make things so much easier. Then this is a five-speed main drive gear kit. So this is important to have if you're doing five-speed transmission work. And it is very, very nice. Very heavy duty. I keep it, try to keep it old and cleaned and they'll last for a long, long time. So this gets that main drive gear out. Kind of got to have that. This is, of course, my big snap-on half-inch impact. Love this thing. And the battery's setting up here for the light. Snaps in there. Top forward. Reverse. I love this. Then we just used this not long ago. Evo clutch spring compression tool. Got that off Amazon. And fortunately, you know, used to specialty motorcycle tools used to be very, very expensive. Fortunately for now, you know, everybody's making them. And you can get them off eBay pretty cheap. I think this was like 30 bucks, 40 bucks. Then down here, twin cam, cam bearing, puller, and installer. So this is for the twin cam. It does both bearings and it's super nice to have. So if you're pulling bearings and installing bearings on a twin cam, you've got to have some of this stuff. I told you it's not much stuff. Not much stuff at all. My son-in-law gave me these nice Cornwell magnetic strap things that my tools go in. So I keep all my ratcheting wrenches in here. I don't have a complete set. Some are just one ended. Some are double ended. They're mixed match. They're all not the same things. This is a Stanley. This is a Pittsburgh. So they're not all even the same brand, but they do work. And ratcheting wrenches are fun when you can get in there to use them. They're real fun. All right, this is another one of just those things that I've had forever. This was the top of the kit that I originally bought and I just left it in here and set it on top. So all my Allens are here, standard and metric. All my torque bits, my T bits are here. And then my Phillips head, flathead. I got some wobbles, some adapters. These are Allens, extended Allens I don't ever use because I just like using the short ones better with that extension on it. These are some little short Allens. Things I've just picked up along the way. Power torque, somebody bartered with me on some work. And then a whole lot of just 12 points. These are all Pittsburgh's. Flatheads over here, Phillips over here. And then my guns over here. These are snap-on. Guns, love these. The batteries really last a whole long. My drill. And then I've got this wrench here that I love. I got this off Amazon as well. It's a Kimmo, Kimo, I don't know how you say that. But I love this because you can go different speeds. Really nice. So this will save you a lot of time instead of twisting and wrenching. So I use that quite a bit when I can. This drawer here has a whole lot of specialty tools as well. Transmission lock tool, hardly ever use it. It's a Jim's. It was on a barter. Have a lot of things that are still in the package on a barter that I did, but I don't even know if they're gonna be any good. This is a Jim's steering head race puller and it's all rusted. I've never even opened it. So I don't know how good those are gonna do. This is gonna, a big twin five-speed transmission door puller. I usually don't use it, but I just snatch it up. These are my little clips I keep in here for the lifters on the Evos. Cam tensioner tool. Puller that I made, primary lock tool. I don't like using this one. I rather use this one from Lowbrow Customs cause it's bright green. It's like a neon green. And I don't, I won't forget and leave it in there. Over here, I've got my small specialty tools. A kid of like really small tools. You'd probably use them for like, well, it says smartphone there, but sometimes dealing with radios on the bike or even carburetor parts and stuff. You might use something like that. I got my digital gauge there, mechanical ones. This I use all the time on almost everything. Love it. Even some mics, different mics. Really handy to have. Small drawer here is my tire pressure gauge. I mean, my compression gauge, all the different fittings for that. My test slide, and this test slide needs to go in my, I don't know how it wound up here. That needs to go on my electrical thing. Another little chain breaker that pops the rivets out. Now this long drawer here is actually the bottom of that tool cart, that mechanic set that I originally bought. So this was the bottom, over there was the middle, that was the top, and it had a lid. So I had to kind of shave this down to get this to fit in here, but it works and it holds all my half inch stuff. I am missing my 30, and I don't know where it walked off to, but it's gone. Also in here, I keep, used to keep, I used to use these. Oh, there's my 30. Okay, that explains that. Mystery solved. I cut that in half. Used to do this to do valves. So I'd take this and take a clamp and compress it and then get my valve keepers out. But I upgraded, so I don't use that anymore. If you want it, you can have it. Another one too, for different size valves. I wish I hadn't of used that. I don't know why I used that. I guess because I had to. And another one there as well. Some bigger big dogs, inch sockets, and I got an inch ratchet down there. Some more little specialty tools, a little clamp. This is more for cars, for the brakes, to put the little flares in. This here is a dial indicator, flex stand. Hardly ever use this, but it's really nice. Got this from Harbor Freight as well. Thank you for seeing me use this before if you've watched my stuff. So super, super nice. Don't hardly ever have to use that. And I've got this, which is my carb tune kit. This does up to four carbs at a time. It's really nice. Don't use it much, but it is super, super nice. I have used it in the videos, so you can see that. This here, V, V-I-M-L maybe? Tools, and that's an Allen, kind of like a ratcheting Allen. I don't, you know, I don't think I've ever used this. I don't think I've ever used that. I need to. Maybe I'll use that in the next video. Just say we did, but that was a gift to me. I don't think I've ever used it. And then I got some Baron installers for transmissions. That's a race puller for the five-speed, six-speed race pullers. Some other pullers as well. Brake line, bender, holes, cutter. And just some more various pullers as well. So down here at the bottom, I have this tap and die set, blue point, which I believe used to be snap-on. And this is the metric set. Really nice set here. And standard set. Really nice set there. This is my valve keeper, taker router. Just used this a couple of times last week, actually. Our big inch ratchet. This, okay. I don't know. I made this for something, but I guess I bought the specialty tool for it. Of course, my cylinder honer. Evo big twin cam bearing puller. So this is for the Evos here. It's quite like, a little bit like the twin cam puller, but just a smaller plate. This is a Jim's counter shaft sprocket lock nut wrench. I've got one already. It's up here. So I've never opened this one and it's rusted. I don't know. I'll have to clean it up before it could be used. That was a barter as well. And then I have this job smart. I believe I bought this at TSC because I needed a big, big Allen. I think I needed this three quarter Allen for something. And you can tell I've used it. Some of these I've never used before, but I needed a big one. And I just went ahead and got the whole kit because it was cheaper than just buying a single one for some reason. So this right here was probably my biggest purchase. I used to have a Harbor Freight mechanical one and I would spend two hours putting the tire on and off. And it was wearing me out and I'd wrassle and be afraid I'd mess my rim up or nick something. I pulled the bullet and got this. I think with shipping and all at the time I got this, it was like $1,100. And I had to go into town to get it off an 18 wheeler and then bring it up here. But I love that thing. That really blessed my shop. I'm able to just throw a rim on there, pop a tire off, pop a tire on, balance it and done. That is a huge, huge time saver and blessing to my shop. Probably the best upgrade I've ever done. And I've got a big air tank over there. It's old. I do drain it once a year. It is old, but it still works. It still works. There's my sandblaster. I don't really use it much anymore. My shop press over there. And I got some stuff for my walls right there. We got to put up my little bench grinder is setting over there. And then my drill press is back over there. And guys, that's really, that's really it. So as you can see, you really don't need a lot of stuff to get involved in just working on motorcycle. Go to Harbor Freight, buy you one of those mechanic sets. And that's probably 80% of what you're going to use. And then if you need a specialty tool, buy a specialty tool. Almost everything that I would earn out here in the shop when I started, I put right back in to the shop. So I would always have money set aside for tools and stuff when I wasn't depending on this as a source of income. Now it's a little bit different, but still just buy as you go and don't be afraid of the cheap stuff. You don't have to have top of the line tools. I've had these Pittsburgh sets for years and years and I have put them through some abuse and I'm not sponsored by them. They weren't given to me. I paid that out of my hard earned money and they have paid for themselves time and time again. So why would I upgrade just to have some name brand thing or something fancy? I'm not going to do it. Actually, if I was to lose all of these tools that I bought from Harbor Freight and had to replace them, I'd go buy the same ones. They're probably even made a little bit better now. So thank you so much for hanging out in the shop with me as we just kind of talk tools and motorcycle tools. If you like this video, give me a thumbs up or shout out to me. Let me know down in the comments. If you need any source links or anything for any of the tools I bought, just go to Harbor Freight. They're there. Tell your mama now, I said hi.