what is this "socket" for?

[Pete M]

it's got a matching 3/8" square hole on the other side and is knurled.   

[krustyballer16]

So its female on both ends?
I was gonna say gripped extension but thsts not right...

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[13 Legion]

Possibly from a tap set? 

[rylee144]

looks like the black piece, kind of:  square drive knurled locking extension

[krustyballer16]

Square pipe plug socket?
That's what I'm going with.

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[13 Legion]

The whole socket is knurled though...we need some more background on that find Pete.... yours? Found it in a junk drawer?

[gogmorgo]

3/8" square socket to go on a 3/8" ratchet?

Female square sockets are a thing, although you don't much encounter square-headed fasteners, they were once more commonplace before hex heads became ubiquitous. Generally speaking modern square-drive sockets will essentially be eight-pointed stars, not just a square. I've really only seen square fasteners on ancient household appliances, TVs and such, older furniture, maybe the odd one on ancient machinery that's been farmered back together a time or two back in the day, but I have seen them occasionally on some more recent cheap Chinese junk, or in machine screw sets, just typically in small sizes. I imagine it costs a lot less to run a tap down the middle of a chunk of flat bar then shear it off and smack the ends on a grinder than to make a proper hex nut. 

 

I've also seen square sockets for driving taps in catalogues, but not in person. Bolt extractors (EZ-outs) frequently have the same male wrench adapter that taps do, and if the bolt was stuck badly enough to damage it and require extracting, it's not always nice to your tap handles to use them for that purpose. I've never really understood why the use odd-sized square took adapters on extractors, seems a big meaty hex would be FAR better to me...

It could also simply be a 3/8" female to female adapter, which is something I definitely could have taken advantage of the odd time. I'm not positive what context the manufacturer would have intended it to be used in because I'm pretty confident any time I could have used one was due to cobbling some crazy $#!& together when I didn't have the correct tools... see above about bolt extracting for some examples of contexts. 

[jdog]

its for a distributor wrench or a offset wench

[JMO413]

1 minute ago, jdog said:

its for a distributor wrench or a offset wench

Agreed

[Pete M]

yay!  answer found! 

 

new question, why do those wrenches have a male end on them in the first place? 

[jdog]

So they can use the female end that gets lost in the tool box and you have to then get a new one. Or so that you can put different wrenches on it depending which job you are working on.

[cruiser54]

You leave it together and use the 1/2" on one end or the 9/16" on the other. The one you're not using becomes the lever and you can rotate it to the best spot. 

[Eagle]

17 hours ago, cruiser54 said:

You leave it together and use the 1/2" on one end or the 9/16" on the other. The one you're not using becomes the lever and you can rotate it to the best spot. 

 

This.

 

Cruiser, I think we have a bunch of youngsters here who have never owned a car that had an adjustable distributor. Or a carburetor, with an idle speed screw and an idle mix screw.

[mjeff87]

I've got one of those, in the "toolbox full of tools I haven't touched in 20+ years", along with a timing light and a dwell meter.  LOL.

[cruiser54]

6 hours ago, Eagle said:

 

This.

 

Cruiser, I think we have a bunch of youngsters here who have never owned a car that had an adjustable distributor. Or a carburetor, with an idle speed screw and an idle mix screw.

 

Agreed. LOL.

Or needed valves adjusted. Points replaced. 

[JEEP_cannible]

LOL I have the same tool's laying around in the bottom of my tool box Jeff.I think its been a little over 10 years since they saw daylight.A couple of years a go I sold a goody that had a glass bubble that measured vacuum at the top of carburetor's.So you could sink duels,and triples to get the best performance.I also have a set of sidedraft's that would look really cool on a 2.5 motor.

[rokinn]

I still have a tube of distributor shaft point lube in my tool box.  Still have the tach/dwell meter and timing light also.  Wife and I each had early 70's air cooled VW's.  Valves needed adjusting every 3K.  Points, condenser, timing adjust and oil change as well.  Brake adjust.  Seems like I lived under those two vehicles.  Glad that era is past.

[DirtyComanche]

I went looking to buy one of those a while back.  Everywhere I asked, people looked at me like I was 'tarded.

 

Reminds me I should order one online.  I don't really need it, I can do it with just a regular combination wrench.

[WyoCherokee]

On 5/14/2019 at 6:54 AM, cruiser54 said:

 

Agreed. LOL.

Or needed valves adjusted. Points replaced. 

Adjusting and setting points with big hands..... arrggghhhh!!! i just eventually converted everything to a pertronix hahaha