Lost $300 on a cheap injector puller lesson learned

I tried saving money last month on a Harbor Freight injector puller for a 6.0 Powerstroke. Broke on the third injector and jammed the tool inside the head. Cost me $300 for a shop to extract it and buy a real OTC puller. Anyone else have a cheap tool fail and cost way more than the good one would have?

2 comments

Log in to join the discussion

Log In

2 Comments

brookes374mo ago

A lot of people forget that cheap tools can also damage the part you're working on, not just break themselves. That Harbor Freight puller probably warped the threads on your injector bore before it snapped, making the extraction even harder on the shop. Did they mention if they had to helicoil anything while they were in there?

7

the_ben4mo ago

Man that's a really good point @brookes37 and honestly it's something I've seen happen more times than I can count. Cheap pullers don't always snap clean, sometimes they just deform the threads enough that you end up fighting a whole different battle. I had a guy bring in a diesel once where a DIYer used a bargain bin slide hammer on the injectors and it mushroomed the tip so bad it cracked the bore sleeve on removal. Ended up being a way bigger job than if they'd just spent the money on a proper tool upfront.

3