Wrenches Anyone??????

There are two styles of wrenches in there that are useful. The zinc plated one which is thicker and has the wide end that fits the top of the cylinder which utilizes flats. This wrench fully surrounds the plug. The other is the narrower fork which fits the exhaust port and has the two pin spanner hooks. The black Cox wrench is a POS which not only ruins your engine, it can easily injure the user. It slips, it ruins the glow plugs, the screwdriver end which is supposedly for tightening the prop screw is useless. The spanner portion doesn't fit correctly which also destroys anything you use it on.The U shaped portion doesn't fit the flats on the cylinder and if the forked end is used on a cylinder, it will surely ruin it. A clear case of fixing it until it's broke. Obviously, the older wrenches worked and cost more. We certainly couldn't have that.

Ken, the earlier wrenches were probably during Leroy Cox's watch, he was a stickler for quality. Too bad he got stuck like other manufacturers in the electric slot car fad that quickly faded, left him with much unsellable useless inventory.

I bet quite a few of us here have a tub of wrenches like that.

Interesting tidbits about the wrenches.

I think I may have one of those shortened wrenches from the late 1970's. Jacob's comment about "too short", could that have been destined for another faceted part of a Cox .049? It already has the cut-out for the cylinder flats, so end portion would not be needed to insert into exhaust ports for removal.

I have a few of those wrenches that have the exhaust slot end too short. I always thought it was a manufacturing error. They are stamped with a part number of 21530, whereas others are stamped with a part number of 1530.




The one that is too short fits in the exhaust of an early thin wall cylinder, but it doesn't go in enough to overhang. It would apply pressure to wall of the cut, potentially causing a dent in the cylinder wall or slipping and causing a burr. Making me nervous just looking at it.





With a later thick wall cylinder, the later wrench fits it well.


However, this silver wrench doesn't go in enough to overhang to backside of the ports, so it would apply pressure to the wall of the cut, and would be easier to slip with.


The wrench that is "too short" is also too narrow to even fit a thick wall cylinder.




This appeared in the QRC manual from the late 70s:



It's best to not use the exhaust openings at all remove or install a cylinder. A leather strap or blocks of wood in a vice being a better option.

This is what happens when you use one of those wrenches that are too short:




As posted about here: https://www.coxengineforum.com/t17490-1956-babe-bee-score#226460