Okay, the next dial indicator I'm going to show you how to use has a vise grip or locked locking
plier base rather than a dial indicator, and this comes in handy anytime you don't have something
magnetic to stick a magnetic base dial indicator to so this is kind of my second favorite dial
indicator and it's a distant second I would much rather use the magnetic one but so let's open
up the box and see what we have we have a piece of foam that goes over the dial indicator itself
to hold it in place and keep it from vibrating when when it's being transported so I'm going
to set that here in the lid I don't want this set in oil or thrown away it needs to be kept
with the box itself all right we have some dial indicator extensions over here it has the same
dial indicator that was described and shown in the magnetic base dial indicator video that I have
we've got one-inch of travel, we've got an outer dial that can be rotated to zero the dial indicator
and a little thumbscrew that can lock it in place right there to keep it from rotating once again do
not drop these be very careful with them they're very expensive but it's a precision tool it's made
to last a very long time all right now the vise grip and these are actual vise grip brand vise
grips here this is the base for the dial indicator and then it has a flexible arm here and almost
everybody hates these because they have a hard time adjusting them and making the dial indicator
hold still while they take a measurement so let me show you a few tricks I've learned over the
years in using this vice-grip bass dial indicator so the first thing is we need to pick a place to
clamp the dial indicator on the vehicle or the part that you're going to be measuring so in
this demonstration I've got a cutaway front axle out of a Toyota Tundra and I want to come in and
measure the backlash on one tooth right there so we need to find a position where we can clamp the
vise grip and still have the flexible arm be able to hold the dial indicator in place and take a
good measurement so if I want my dial indicator to be approximately right here then I better not put
the clamp right next to it because the flexible mounting doesn't have that much flex it needs to
be farther away so there are some fins here on the side of the differential housing there's a big fin
right here also I'm thinking this fin right here on the top might be a good one to clamp to it's
still pretty close though let's see if there's a better place there's a bolt yeah there's a bolt
right back here on the side of the differential housing that I'm going to clamp to so I'm going
to loosen the thumbscrew on the end of the vise grip here just enough that I can still come
in and clamp there we go clamp those vice grips down in place so I've got a good solid connection
there okay the end of this flexible arm here has a threaded shaft on it right there and we can thread
that into this vise grip right here right here or right here I'm thinking in this case here on this
side will be the better location to screw that in so I'm going to run that in by hand and we need to
thread that in all the way just like that and then it takes a 13/16 hand wrench to Snug
that up 13/16 is a is approximately the same as 21 millimeters twenty one's a little
loose on it but twenty one will work also so now we've got a good solid connection here
and then we've got this flexible arm well this flexible arm just flops down in place and it
has a clamp on the end of it right here where the dial indicator is going to go like this
but somehow we've got to keep this flexible arm from flexing once we get the dial indicator in
place so let me show you how to do that and I'm going to take out the dial indicator
because that's the most expensive part while I do this so there's a red handle right here and
that handle connects to a cable you can see the end of the cable you can see the end of
the cable right there and as I turn this red knob the cable gets longer and the cable gets
shorter longer shorter so when we put it in the short position that is when it's supposed to lock
this flexible arm and keep it from falling down but obviously the cable is too long at this
point so on the other end of this flexible arm is another adjustable thumb screw right here
and if we turn this that will take up the slack in that cable you just this threaded thumb screw
enough that when you tighten up the clamp lock over here that it holds the arm from flopping
around now if it still flops down then your cables not tight enough if you can't tighten
up if you can't turn this knob all the way and lock it in place and it keeps coming loose then
your cable is too loose and if you extend the the flexible arm out straight that will have a
different adjustment than if it's bent so it's it's a little tricky to get adjusted properly
which is why a lot of technicians hate this style of bass but once you understand its the matter of
adjusting the length of that cable so that the lock will hold it in place so I can have
it extended out straight here and it'll hold in place I can have it tipping up and it will
hold it in place you just have to adjust the cable to the right length for it to do that so
I'm going to loosen that up so that I can get the dial indicator back in it just like that
I want you to notice I've got a little space on the top of the clamp and some space on the bottom
where that shaft comes through we do not want to clamp or attempt the clamp on the plunger
itself all right then we're going to position the dial indicator plunger onto the ring gear tooth
at a ninety-degree angle just like we did in the magnetic base dial indicator video so I'll put
it down there on a right angle I'll tighten up the thumbscrew to hold the dial indicator for
moving and then tighten up this red lever over here to hold the cable of this flexible arm in
place and now we're holding the dial indicator in place now this knob right here as I as I turned
it, it just barely is the holding that cable in place so I'm going to tighten the cable up just
a little tiny bit more so that it has a better grip and put the dial indicator plunger back on
the tooth where I want it and then that's better lock it in place I've got a good solid connection
there and then just like in the magnetic base dial indicator video that I have we are going
to zero the dial indicator so I've got the dial indicator zeroed I've got the plunger sitting on
a ring gear tooth at a 90 degree angle I've got the dial indicator preloaded so the plunger is
sticking out of the top here some indicating that it's preloaded and now we're ready to
take the same back last measurement that we did before we measured seven-thousandths of an inch
with the magnetic base dial indicator and we're getting the same seven-thousandths of an inch
difference between the two readings looks like we go about maybe a negative half and a positive
six and a half or so right around 7 thousandths of an inch a backlash with a vise grip base dial
indicator so a little harder to use but very handy when you don't have a magnetic or when
you don't have a piece of steel body or suspension to connect it to alright when you are done using
or when you are done taking your measurement and you're going to use this dial indicator again in
in the same day in my class just loosen up the clamp on the dial indicator and set it back in
the box just like this with the dial indicator plunger sticking up if you are done using this
dial indicator for the day disassemble the entire thing and put it back in the box using
the protective foam over the dial indicator and put it back in my precision tool toolbox