Tire Valve Stem Cap Tool

Attachment 12515I'm sure glad there is no lower limit on simplicity here at Homemadetools. The tool I built is dead simple yet I find that it is handy. Without this tool, I often fumble with the valve stem caps on my tires and they drop inside the hub cap. Then I have to remove the hub cap and sometimes the tabs break off. So what started as a simple task of checking tire pressure ended up requiring me to replace the hub cap.

The tool fits tightly over the cap and lets me unscrew, handle, and reinstall the cap without dropping it.

Start by finding a 1/2" long piece of soft tubing that is a snug fit over your valve stem cap. Then find a 3" long piece of stiff rod (wood, plastic, or metal) that is a tighter fit inside the tubing. Push the rod about 1/4" into the tube.

To use, push the tube over the installed cap while holding onto the rod. Then roll the rod to unscrew the cap. When done checking tire pressure, spin the cap back in place, pull out the tool, and finger tighten the cap if necessary.

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Thanks Rick Sparber! We've added your Valve Cap Tool to our Wheel and Tire category,
as well as to your builder page: Rick Sparber's Homemade Tools. Your receipt:

<div id="blocks"> <div class="block b1 pngfix"> <div class="bimg"> <div> <a href="http://www.homemadetools.net/valve-cap-tool"> <img src="/uploads/154261/valve-cap-tool.jpeg"/> </a> </div> </div> <div class="head pngfix"></div> <div class="left pngfix"></div> <div class="right pngfix"></div> <div class="blockover b1 pngfix"> <div class="title"> <a href="http://www.homemadetools.net/valve-cap-tool">Valve Cap Tool</a> <span> by <a href="http://www.homemadetools.net/builder/Rick+Sparber">Rick Sparber</a></span> </div> <div class="tags">tags: <a href='http://www.homemadetools.net/tag/tire'>tire</a>, <a href='http://www.homemadetools.net/tag/valve'>valve</a> </div> </div> </div> </div>
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For those who think that their tool may be "too simple" to post, please don't let that stop you.

Everyone has lost a tire valve stem cap, whether it fell inside a hubcap, or rolled away from your first bicycle and was hard to spot against an asphalt driveway. Even a child can build this tool.

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Originally Posted by Jon

For those who think that their tool may be "too simple" to post, please don't let that stop you.

Everyone has lost a tire valve stem cap, whether it fell inside a hubcap, or rolled away from your first bicycle and was hard to spot against an asphalt driveway. Even a child can build this tool.

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Let me echo Jon's thoughts: even the simplest ideas can inspire others' ingenuity.

As an example, a simple variant of this tool is to use it as a nut starter. Substitute a nut for the stem cap and you have a way of starting a nut on a bolt buried deep inside a piece of machinery, electronics, whatever. Once started, the tool easily pulls free from the nut.

Another variant... Fitted with the right size tubing and a push rod, such a device can be used to insert BBs into a BB gun clip or small bearings into a ball screw.

Thanks to all for their encouragement!

Rick

...pushpin setter :cool:

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Originally Posted by rgsparber

Attachment 12515I'm sure glad there is no lower limit on simplicity here at Homemadetools. The tool I built is dead simple yet I find that it is handy. When done checking pressure, spin the cap back in place, pull out the tool, and finger tighten the cap if necessary.

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Huh? Where are the valve caps on your conventional bucket crawler? That'll dig some tater's, bushel at a time.
JK and cheers to Rick.
While dexterity is nice, weather and other detriments bring need for solutions. I agree with other posters...do not infer sophistication is a requirement here.

I guarantee sites exist where self-elected elites try to out- pace others. That's BS Scoff now, suffer later chump.
That makes me boil, even with near constant 101/ 60 blood pressure. I gotta post an event, just yesterday, in our off-topic ''shop truths...'' area. Things I'm adamant toward, are probably conspicuous by now.

The point is to convey remedy; before a party requires it, who recalls the info utilizing a method to save the day. I'd challenge anyone contrary. We couldn't begin to estimate how many 'simples' created remarkable advancement.

Great idea Rick, I have used this method for starting spark plugs in deep locations as you avoid a cross threading situation, never thought of doing it for valve caps (I will now).

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Originally Posted by olderdan

Great idea Rick, I have used this method for starting spark plugs in deep locations as you avoid a cross threading situation, never thought of doing it for valve caps (I will now).

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Glad you liked it. I do use it often. It is no fun trying to fish those caps out from behind my hub caps.

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Originally Posted by rgsparber

Glad you liked it. I do use it often. It is no fun trying to fish those caps out from behind my hub caps.

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Or trying to remember where the special hubcap removal tool is knowing that if you do not retrieve the lost cap you will have that annoying rattle every time you slow down.
Too simple to be a tool? Bulderdash! Just like Toolmaker 51 stated simplicity has lead to many advanced accomplishments.

This reminds me of a tool for the same use, but different reason. The problem was not dropping the caps inside of hubcaps, but being able to reach them between the duals of my Dad's Semi truck. With the hose-on-a-stick tool, he could get them both from the outside instead of fighting to get his hands between the dual wheels (if he could position them in the right rotation to reach them). Thanks for the great memory!

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Originally Posted by olderdan

Great idea Rick, I have used this method for starting spark plugs in deep locations as you avoid a cross threading situation, never thought of doing it for valve caps (I will now).

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For years I used a piece of appropriate sized vacuum tubing pushed over the terminal on spark plugs to put them into nearly inaccessible locations to start them and then just pull it off.

And on the simple tool thread, coming back from town down the back road to my place I found a lazy susan type Kuereg coffee stand in a pile of stuff some a-hole dumped in the desert (along with Cereus peruvianus monstrose cactus chunks we brought home for my wife`s cactus garden) and I turned it into this. Took a lot of space consuming items off the magnet racks on my shop wall.Attachment 33260

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Originally Posted by baja

And on the simple tool thread, coming back from town down the back road to my place I found a lazy susan type Kuereg coffee stand in a pile of stuff some a-hole dumped in the desert and I turned it into this. Took a lot of space consuming items off the magnet racks on my shop wall.

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I use one of these...

https://www.amazon.com/Studio-Design...9879273&sr=8-1

for small tools at my indoor work table. It works well to minimize the space occupied by the tools without sacrificing accessibility. These are made to hold light weight brushes and pens so when filled with pliers and other metal tools they tend to lean a bit and drag on the surface where they rest. I solve this problem by balancing them with small plastic bottles filled with bird shot. It doesn't take much to get them back on an even keel.

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Originally Posted by mklotz

I use one of these...

https://www.amazon.com/Studio-Design...9879273&sr=8-1

for small tools at my indoor work table. It works well to minimize the space occupied by the tools without sacrificing accessibility. These are made to hold light weight brushes and pens so when filled with pliers and other metal tools they tend to lean a bit and drag on the surface where they rest. I solve this problem by balancing them with small plastic bottles filled with bird shot. It doesn't take much to get them back on an even keel.

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The one I found seems to be pretty heavy duty, it doesn`t seem to matter much about weight distribution.

If you have friends there are no problems with your tools cluttering up your place. Your friends will have borrowed and lost all of them.

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Originally Posted by jdurand

If you have friends there are no problems with your tools cluttering up your place. Your friends will have borrowed and lost all of them.

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I have dogs that love to jump up on the work table and scatter tools or carry off a hammer because of its handle. Forget screw drivers one of my dogs thinks he is helping me by carrying them off a burying them in gopher holes

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Originally Posted by jdurand

If you have friends there are no problems with your tools cluttering up your place. Your friends will have borrowed and lost all of them.

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I`ve barred the irresponsible friends from borrowing mine but my wife doesn`t take no for an answer, lol.

I have a tool like that to use on spark plugs that are tucked way down where my hands can’t fit.