I discovered Durant's had tool kit under the front seat. Never knew that until recently. Sure weren't with our Durant's in the 60's nor any we found in field's or buildings.
What are they and are they marked like Ford T (with Ford name, or thistle, or triangle) ?

Mr. Toone: It seems likely that the steel box located under the driver's seat was meant to carry an engine crank, tire iron and possibly a small jack. However, since there are no glove boxes, trunk or other storage area other than the similar long box under the rear seat -- it is an ideal place to carry required registration and insurance information, and the usual items like pencil and paper, etc. We presently carry a fold-up tire iron, small hydraulic jack and basic few tools under the rear seat -- which are rarely if ever needed (considering auto club assistance). I was told that some owners kept their fancy wing or bone radiator caps hidden under the front seat for showtime only, because some of them seemed to disappear to sticky fingers. A standard plain radiator cap was the substitute.

Thanks Ron but I've heard there was a roll up kit of tools like Ford in a cloth container. The hardest to find being a bent pair of pliers for adjusting the brakes. One was the hub cap wrench ...ouch to tightening those aluminum caps with that. I've seen caps that were tightened beyond hub thread. Haven't a clue what the others might be.

Norm,

I just looked in the back of my 1923 A-22 Durant parts book and there is an excelant picture of the tool pouch with 11 tools included, everything from a small hammer to a monkey wrench, also on the same page is a hub cap wrench, a demountable rim wrench (two styles listed) and the crank....Possably the Star owners have a similar illistration in their parts books as well, and could scan Rick a picture for the tec page, I will attempt to scan Rick a picture of the A-22 illistration....Bill

Norm: This dialogue brings up the issue of finding that set of tools if available somewhere. Any further info? All we have is generic tools and have not been aware of the hub and brake tools. Thanks!

The brake pliers were for the Midland Steeldraulic brakes that are found on the 1930 to 1932 Durant vehicles. There were other makes of cars that used the same brakes and the same pliers. Harvey Frid of Belleville did make a replacement set of pliers. No doubt Mike & Neil Buttars could make them as they have all of Harvey's patterns.
The only tools that came with our 1922 Durant were a wrench with several openings, axle nut size, and hubcap wrench and axle adjusting nut sizes. We also got a generic jack and a starting crank. To date I have never seen a tool with the name "Durant" or logo on it. There is a chap at Hershey who specializes in tools and I have went through his many tables of tools and never found anything specific to Durant

Gord.

Hi guys. It came up in discussion about the tool "kit" and it seems now there was. If you see it in your 23 book then there must have been. Gord confirmed the bent pliers and we know the standard all purpose tool like Ford T with hub, bearing, and axle nut holes. Looking in my 1935 parts catalogue they don't mention tools for sale other than a dble screw ball bearing type jack for $2.25. Get this step plates for the 1930 / 31 models at 65 cents each. Tinned oil cans with spout 1/2 pint capacity at 10 cents each. Perhaps by then tools were not even considered, just the parts to fix the cars. To make you drool, they offered a swallow ornament, chrome plated for the rad for $1.85.
Of course if you owned a Durant, why would you need tools ? LOL

I pulled this from the other Durant site on 617's. www.durantcars.com. Note Tool kit. (my 1935 parts catalogue also said hand crank for 65 cents for all cars, I missed)

Rear vision mirror, automatic windshield wiper, electric horn, combination stop and tail light, jack, tool kit, tire carrier with extra rim, headlamps with depressible beams, etc. All exterior bright hardware chromium plated. Four double-acting hydraulic shock absorbers. Electric engine temperature indicator.

Hi All........

Interesting discussion.

If you have one of my reprinted Durant and Star Repair Parts Lists that covers the Models M M2 M4 and 40 four cylinder and the model R 55 and 60 six cylinder cars (this is the one with the green cover) Turn to page 114 there is a listing of the tool kit and some individual tools, did you know there were 5 different hub cap wrenches?

Unfortunately none of these tools is pictured, The early Star parts book that was mentioned earlier does have illustrations of the early tools.

Thanks........Frank ---

hello men,
your talk reminds me of the 6-14 i had .it came with a rim remover tool, a hubcap wrench for wood wheels and i still have a funny bent pliers in the garage that has a flat structure to its nose and a bent side"kink"....maybe this is from the durant 6-14 stuff?
i will have to see what is in the newest two durants when they get here....gary k

This was an interesting topic that sparked me to look at some of my repair manuals as Bill Hogan suggested, so I dug out the eight Repair Parts Manuals I currently have.The first manual I looked at was Star Repair Manual (March 1st. 1923) This manual has several pages of tools listed, pg. 136-37 shows a box unit of hand tools (scans will be forwarded for posting on tech page as will all tools that are listed as sets,boxed or with photos), pg. 138-43 show special hand tools and equiptment available, pg.139 shows an MM-39 Arbor and Straightening Press, pg.140 shows an HM-207 Car Lifting Hooks & HM Towing Bar, pg.141 shows an HM-58 Car Jacks, HM-250 Piston Ring GaugeFiling, HM-420 Springleaf Spreader, HM-45 Piston Vise. pg.142-43 shows a boxed unit for main bearing line reaming set ( only name mentioned is a Martell adjustable reamer). pg.144 shows Star Service Slection of socket wrenches a set of 10 ( all wrenches are marked Walden Worchester Wrench) this page also list Suggestive uses of Star Services Slection of Wrenches and gives various car parts and suggest which wrench to use according to wrench part ID number.

The second manual I looked at was Star Repair Parts List six cylinder Model "R" June 1927, under tool list are, 1960-Demountable Rim Wrench, 20964-Hub Cap Wrench, 1513- Starting Crank, 22280- Alemite Grease Gun

Third manual was Star Repair Book Model "M" April 1928 (Durant Motors of Canada) under tool list are 1960-Demountable Rim Wrench, 22256- Hub Cap Wrench, 1513-Starting Crank, 1548-Alemite Grease Gun, 21754-Dot Grease Gun

Fourth Manual was Flint Repair Parts List for Flint six Model "55" September 1924 pg.92 list a Tool Kit 30913-Starting Crank Complete, 30914-Starting Crank Bracket Cap, 30847-Hub Cap Wrench, 20040-Demountable Rim Wrench, 31178-Carburetor Wrench, 31177-Water Pump pack nut wrench, 31176-a 3/8" pipe coupling wrench, and 3565-Rear Wheel puller screw.

Fifth Manual was Durant Four (Star Series) "Model M-2" March 1928 pg.68 list under tools 22280-Alemite Grease Gun, 1960-Demountable Rim Wrench (used with Kelsey-Hayes Wheels), 24541-Demountable Rim Tool (used with Kelsey-Hayes Wheel), 24945-Demountable Rim Tool (used with Bimel Wheel), 20964-Hub Cap Wrench, 1513-Starting Crank.

Sixth,Seventh & Eighth Manuals were
(6th) Durant six cyl. Model "65" April 1928 tools were the same as Model "M" except 25111-Hub Cap Wrench.

(7th) Durant six cyl. Model"55" May 1928 tools were the same as model"65"

(8th) Durant six cyl. Model"75" June 1928 tools were the same as Models "65" & "55" except 25824-Oil Gun, 25825-Hub Cap Wrench.

Maybe some day some ambitious club members can find photos and sizes for the various tool part numbers listed in all the repair parts manuals and catalouges, heck maybe this would make a great project to request in the DURANT PARTNER. I think also Bob Smith can shed a little light on this topic as I belive he has a boxed set of tools. Hope I was able to help in a small way Norm and others.

Steve Large scanned and donated 7 pages from a Repair Manual for Star motor cars printed March 1st. 1923. I've posted those pages on the Tech page under Manuals and other Documentation. Click the Star Hand Tools link.

Thank You Steve,

Rick

I forgot to mention that once you click on a picture that it will appear full size. This will make it easier to print if you save a copy first. To save a copy fisrt click on the small image, then after the large full sized image appears, press your right mouse button and when the menu appears, select the Save Image As optoin then save it to your computer.

Rick

Tools has been updated with the addition of the A-22 Tool Kit pages donated by Bill Hoaglan.

Rick

Remember to refresh your screen if you do not see the new scans.

Seem to have stirred up some interest on this. We've covered from early 20's to 1929. Anyone have 30 / 31 parts book for Tool info ? Since 20's versus 30's Durant's are like night and day 29 to 30, I assume the tool kits would be the same. Remember almost nothing on a 29 fits a 30. Its like trying to put a Ford T part on a Rolls Royce, for comparison .