Is this commercial research ?

Anybody who would have ever used a wrench on just about anything but a bicycle would know that bolt access constraints would make this perfectly useless (you did specify "car" junkyard - bicycle junkyard could prove a more successful application...)

I like the "next gen" version of this tool which has ratcheting inserts in each end and provides four common sizes. Works better in tight spots too.

I know of one junkyard dog that has several complete sets of tools and a pile of bones that look suspiciously of human origin. His name is "Willy", (short for Will He Bite?).

There is an old style wrench called a Stillson Wrench by it's proper name and a lot of non-repeatable things by those that use them. These strike me as being very much in that same category.

I have one with a perimeter ratchet. It is valuable to me in solar panel installation because of the various sizes of all-thread rods we use.

The wife bought me a set of these for Christmas. I hate them. Since they have magnets in the handles I leave them on the outside of my tool box so it looks like I use them all the time. The only good use I have found is the oil drain plug on cars. Other wise I prefer my "Gear Wrench" set. As useful as a socket wrench but compact like a box end. Don't buy Craftsman's version of the Gear Wrench. The slightest lateral pressure and the ratchet mechanism releases and all it does is spin inside the handle.

I still have a very old one of these style, not made in china but american made, used it for 21 years for drain plugs as mechanic, did not fit my vehicle of choice "Peugeots," but fit a surprising number of other vehicles, would not use on most things torqued or critical fasteners, but great for what it was made for, for some unknown reason Peugeot and other French cars used a inside square that no known tool manufacturer's made socket for, for many years, now snap-on makes on, I have a french torque wrench a customer got for me when he was over there buying wine to import, strangest thing I have seen but works very well, has sliding setting and flex beam with clicker torque alert, but no ratcheting head, instead a 2 way head that can be removed and swiveled 180dg for off angles, cost me 105.00us back in 1984 delivered at my door, but that is another story,

Sincerely
Mitch retired peugeot mechanic

Mitch,

Those square drive sump plug sockets have been available for many years from FACOM tools and SEK.

Regards

Bill

Question, Does anyone know the best way to pull code out of a pcm brain and rewrite it,

I have a 98 mercury mystique with the 2.0l four valve dual overhead cam engine, usa, california smogged,, it makes stock 129 horsies and can be brought up to 189 with a computer daughter card or hacking the brain and writting code for cartiographic map, I have the spare brain and want to power it up to pull factory code for editing, they want a fortune for obdII tool to do this or a daughter card can be installed if you know the parameters you want, guy in Australia sells the card and will burn it to your specs but I don't know what these are yet, I tried a later pcm but pin out is different and reverse gear and idle would not work, brain for this car can be had for 50.00 junk yard but chip is surface soldered next to risc processor on board, is 16 bit with back edge connector into the system for programming, the reason I want to hack is the damnable ex cam timing retarder that replaces egr valve, ford vision of last best way to screw up a good engine, retard the cam timing to foul combustion charge and drop temp to reduce no2, want to kill the software for this and braze a gear fixed for best performance and milage settings, new ca law for 2011 if it shows no error code it gets smog cert for biannual, just hooks up to scanner now no longer runs on dyno for smog,

Sincerely
Mitch retired peugeot mech

Looks like they'd have pretty limited use to me.

Anybody that does any type of mechanic work knows that within minutes of going to work on something, you're going to need an extension on your ratchet to get at a nut or bolt. At least it's that way for me.

As an automation electrician for a large factory, I carried a tool pouch to save trips back and forth to my tool box. I had a set of combination open-end/swivel-head wrenches that were very versatile. If the action required an extension, a small adjustable crescent could be applied to the shank of the wrench (later, these wrenches were manufactured with holes for a leverage bar for this purpose). The only major handicap was the limited depth for the socket head. I see the drawback for these "dog bone wrenches" to be the surround distance required by the multiple socket.

The other tradesmen would ask me "why would an electrician needed a tool pouch anyway?", but when the line went down, they would ask to borrow mine, rather than walk the distance to and from their tool box while a dozen production workers waited.