5 Electrical Tools Every Toolbox Should Have

For some, it’s the work that they might make any excuse to avoid. Even if that’s how you feel about repair or fine-tuning of your car’s electrical systems, a case can be made for having at least some preparations to handle problems that may pop up. A personal instance was when a project motorcycle appeared in the garage with the wiring harness completely stripped off.

The electrical system is often one of the more easily explained systems of a project. It’s not any more difficult to understand than the oil path from the oil pump back to the pan. If you can understand where that oil goes and how it gets there you are most of the way to understanding a wiring harness. Electrons want to flow in one direction, so the absolute basics of a toolkit for the tasks you’ll address center around seeing where electricity is, where it’s not, and how to bridge the two properly, along with a few extras that just cannot be replaced and are great to have on hand.

Multimeter

Look, you might resist reaching for it, but multimeters have gotten downright cheap and are easier to use than ever. Getting familiar with even the basic functions can unlock diagnostic powers that will save time, money, and frustration compared to guess-and-check parts replacement. This allows testing most sensors also, which is how I found that the coil and main wiring harness were in serviceable condition on my project bike.

Test Light

The more durable but less educated brother to the multimeter is the test light. It’s basically a light bulb in a screwdriver, so it just can’t give the same amount of information as a multimeter. However, the ease of use is undeniable. I still reach for mine to quickly and easily test grounds on misbehaving vehicles. Vintage test lights are nice as they often feature an incandescent bulb rather than an LED. The filament in a traditional bulb is nothing but a resistor that gives a visual indication of power flowing through it, which means if you get tuned into your test light you can quickly spot a connection with more resistance than it should have, but that often requires a little luck and is really a job for a multimeter.

Wire strippers

So you found a frayed wire or damaged connection. Cutting most automotive wire is a trivial task, but stripping the end in preparation for a connection is best done by special tools. A properly stripped wire will still have all the strands of the core and a tidy square cut end to the insulation. It can be done with a pocket knife, so many of us have been there, but having a set of strippers makes the job easier and more enjoyable.

Soldering iron

Crimp connectors have their place in the electrical world, but aren’t practical in every application. The need to solder a joint or connection is relatively rare for most project cars once the bulk of electrical work is done so a soldering iron might spend more time in the back of a drawer, yet they are nice to have and occasionally can be used to solve other problems like adding heat to a delicate fastener or area to break corrosion.

Timing light

Your ignition system is an electrical system on your car, and while there are ways to dial in the distributor, a timing light is one of the easiest ways to get the job done. I’d put a dwell meter on this list except so many modern timing lights include that function and a handful of others. Vintage gauges are sweet, but calibration should be considered at some point.

Have something you would add because you find yourself reaching for it regularly? Add it in a comment down below. Tools kits are like fingerprints, except we get to change them based on our needs and wants and it’s always interesting to hear what other people are doing and why.

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