Dial indicators?

[mrkotfw]

Hello everyone,

I'm a bit confused as to what kind of dial indicators are useful to have.

I'm going to changing my front brakes soon and I'm looking to get a dial indicator to check the play. I understand that I can just do the old tighten then loosen just a bit advice that I've found, but it would be good to have these tool in my toolbox.

Is there a recommended dial indicator (brand, model version) that can also be used to check the play on the wheel bearing play as well as end play on the flywheel?

[air-h2o-air]

magnetic base is a must to make the indicator more versatile. The sky is the limit as to which brand, quality and pricing..the vary greatly...An indicator with 1" or so of travel should work for probably most your needs

[mrkotfw]

[mrkotfw]

Mitutoyo is out of the question. I don't see anything for less than 150$.

[Volks Wagen]

if you're on a budget you can use feeler gauges and some sort of bolt on a jig, - like you could get a magnet base and arm and put a bolt in it instead of the dial gauge, then position it against the object, push pull to get a gap for play and measure the gap with feeler gauges.
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[mrkotfw]

[air-h2o-air]

take a peek at jegs.com or summitracing.com

they usually have some entry level not too expensive specialty tools

[modok]

10$ at harbor freight.
Or summit ect, good idea

SPI is a good "mid" brand, but.... probably better off to buy several cheap ones. Drop one, lose one, then still have the other to use

[Brian]

x2 for harbor frat. Haven't had a problem with mine.
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[mrkotfw]

Thanks everyone. I think I might get one at Harbor Freight for the time being. If I order now, it won't get here until next week.

Side note:
I'm in a bit of a weird situation where I have to travel 1 hour away in order to
fix my car.

it would be awesome to rent a garage (for cheap) so that I can actually work on my other projects every day, rather than 2 times a week (weekends).

[Mr.Duncan]

harbor freight one works great, And I checked it for accuracy.

Magnetic base is sweet!

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[Jeff_Birt]

I have a few Harbor Freight items that are OK and some that are just junk. I decided years ago I would rather spend my money wisely rather than support stores selling junk which are full of employees who have no clue about what they are selling. Being close to both a Harbor Freight store and Grizzly has provided the opportunity to look at what they offer in person. Both sell mostly import goods, the quality at Grizzly is noticeable better and they stand behind what they sell and even carry parts for most of what they sell (try to get parts from Harbor Freight).

Many years ago I bought a 4" caliper from Grizzly because that is what I could afford and they had it on same for $12, it still works good today. When it goes bad it will we a throw away item. at the other end of the scale I just sent a 25 year old 6" Starrett caliper back to them for repair. It cost about 1/2 the price of a new unit to have it repaired to as new condition. I'm sure it will last another 30 years of daily use. You can find a good deals on used/broken Starrett instruments then send them in for repair and have a like new product at a good savings.

[Abscate]

You don't need a dial indicator to adjust a wheel bearing. Muir has the best description of this in his book, but this isn't rocket science. You want the axial play out of it, but you do not want it loaded. The movement on the nut in this range is about 1/12 of a rotation, or 1/2 of a hex flat - it isn't hard to get it into this range with your hands and head.

When you take the time to develop the feel, when you are out on the road and don't have that workshop with you, you can still solve the problem without AAA, or AA.

At the boat ramp, I have changed other people's bearings with a screwdriver and a rock, carefully collecting the grease and getting them home nearly on time.

The flywheel play - yep, I would dial it in.
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[Danpa]

If I were you, I'd look at Enco Tools. They carry all the necessary tooling for machine shops and have a wide variety of gages from inexpensive import (Chinese) to Starrett and everything in between. And they usually have the best prices. And don't be too afraid of the cheap ones, I've had a few of these for over 20 years and they work fine. I used to work in a shop that did work for the steel mills and they took some real abuse.

The problem with going with somebody like Summit, is they only have a couple of types of indicators and bases where at a place like Enco or McMaster-Carr, you can get exactly what you need.
As far as what kind to get. If you are going to be checking something that has say, .003 in and out play, you would be better off getting a indicator that reads in .0001 instead of .001. It's a lot easier to see a needle move a 180 degrees around the dial face than to see it move maybe 5 degrees on the same size face. Now if you want to check around .020 or more play, get the .001 indicator.
It's important to get a good quality magnetic base that tightens up nice and solid when you want to begin checking something also.

When you set up the indicator, if it's the plunger style, make sure you have the stem set perpendicular to the surface you are going to check. If you are using the finger style, have the body of the indicator set square to the surface of the part and have the angle of the tip no more than about 15 degrees to the surface you are checking. The more angle there is, the more error you will get.

One last thing, you might want to check a local pawn shop for used stuff. Factory workers along with construction workers and musicians seem to be their main suppliers.

Dan

[mrkotfw]

Invaluable information. Thanks everyone for the help.