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PSA Proper Screwdrivers (JIS)

slevin

slevin

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Pasadena, California
I've been an amateur car enthusiasts and motorcyclists for years and have run into problems with phillips head screws over and over in my time messing with cars and motorcycles. Mostly with the latter, especially while trying to disassemble older motorcycles and their carburetors. This old motorcycle mechanic that helped my brother work on his Honda VRF400 about 7 years ago told me about this and I've bought 3 sets for various things I work on. You'll never bugger up a screw again, especially on something Japanese.

Basically Japanese phillips heads are JIS spec, (Japanese industrial standard). Which pretty much means almost every single phillips screwdriver you buy in the states never quite gives 100% grip to the inside of the X part of the screw. You buy a set of JIS screwdrivers and you'll use that same set for the rest of your life on anything Asian/Japanese with phillips heads on it.

The brand I've been using is Vessel. Amazon has this set available. I'd highly recommend it. Even on my Blast City I was disassembling yesterday there were screws that were super tight and showed signs of camout already, but as long as I had good pressure on them they came right out without stripping the heads. (I cringed when I was watching the 45 minute youtube video of someone disassembling a Blast City, even more when he had to bust out EZ outs and drill the screws out)

https://www.amazon.com/VESSEL-MEGAD...t=&hvlocphy=9031103&hvtargid=pla-904934265824
 
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I watched that same video slevin. Also recently just got a blast and heavily relied on that video to get a sense for how to fully dismantle it before delivery. It was super helpful to be intimately familiar with the process ahead of time, but I really felt the same way when he didn't use the proper driver for the fastener (and insisted on using the power tools instead of good ole-fashioned elbow grease).

For anyone in the future reading this, I got by with a JIS #2 for most of the fasteners on the Blast City. Occasionally, I'd drop down to a JIS #1. It could be the case that some of the screws should have been removed with a different size, but I didn't have any issues. The important thing, like you said, is to use proper pressure and to DRIVE STRAIGHT. Any sort of angle from getting sloppy or rushing, and you can still cam out. I was able to buy a VESSEL #2 from Amazon and for the #1, I relied on the bit from my iFixit Mako 64 set (one of my favorite sets available at the moment).

BE VERY WARY OF DRIVERS YOU FIND ON AMAZON!!! Read the reviews thoroughly, I saw lots of claims of Philips drivers being sold as JIS. VESSEL seemed to be the most reliable.
 
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Good post. I purchased my first set when I bought my blast. Blew my mind because I remember having trouble with screws on my early 70’s Honda CB350 and this was probably my issue.
 
clam_wattson said:
I watched that same video slevin. Also recently just got a blast and heavily relied on that video to get a sense for how to fully dismantle it before delivery. It was super helpful to be intimately familiar with the process ahead of time, but I really felt the same way when he didn't use the proper fastener (and insisted on using the power tools instead of good ole-fashioned elbow grease).

For anyone in the future reading this, I got by with a JIS #2 for most of the fasteners on the Blast City. Occasionally, I'd drop down to a JIS #1. It could be the case that some of the screws should have been removed with a different size, but I didn't have any issues. The important thing, like you said, is to use proper pressure and to DRIVE STRAIGHT. Any sort of angle from getting sloppy or rushing, and you can still cam out. I was able to buy a VESSEL #2 from Amazon and for the #1, I relied on the bit from my iFixit Mako 64 set (one of my favorite sets available at the moment).

BE VERY WARY OF DRIVERS YOU FIND ON AMAZON!!! Read the reviews thoroughly, I saw lots of claims of Philips drivers being sold as JIS. VESSEL seemed to be the most reliable.
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hahah, I'm glad I wasn't the only one who watched that video and cringed. Right on the #2, my vessel #2 worked for 95% of the screws and I had to bust out the #1 once or twice for some tiny ones.
Chron said:
Good post. I purchased my first set when I bought my blast. Blew my mind because I remember having trouble with screws on my early 70’s Honda CB350 and this was probably my issue.
Click to expand...
Yup, I've screwed up so many screws on my older japanese bikes when trying to rebuild the carbs. Once I got a set of the vessels, never had an issue again.
 
Yeah I learned about the difference between JIS and Philips a few years back and at that point I bought several set of JIS drivers and use them for everything. they even work better on non-JIS philip head screws in my experience.

I believe this has come up a few times on various tool threads over the years, but it's one of those simple things that improves you quality of life and hardly anyone seems to know about it... so the more threads on the topic the better :)
 
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