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what is it with Jeep & 16mm bolts?

2K views 8 replies 8 participants last post by  nighowl2000 
#1 ·
Why does jeep have a love affair with 16mm head sizes on alot of their bolts?
This goes way back even to my '85 XJ, my '99 XJ and my '15 JK.

Everyone else in the world would use either a 15mm or 17mm head size, but not Jeep. Heck, just try and find a wrench or socket set that has 16mm in it, especially in a 1/2" drive, deep well impact socket.

Maybe it is just an American metric thing. I cannot recall 16mm's on any of the dozens of European or Japanese cars & motorcycles I have owned.

Ugh.
 
#6 ·
I have lots of high quality, American made hand-tools that I mainly bought in the 60's, 70's & early 80's, in fact 3 roll-aways worth (snap-on, S&K, Allen, Proto and old, made-in-the USA Craftsman).

Most of these were sets, and none had 16mm wrenches or sockets.

So I ended up having to buy individual sockets and wrenches in this size to work on my Jeeps over the years.

Just lamenting when I needed a 1/2 drive 16mm, deep impact socket that I did not have (or maybe misplaced), nor could I find one locally - not at Lowes, Home Depot, local tool supply or even Harbor Freight. Even the local Snap-on truck did not have one, but he will have the $20 socket next week.
 
#4 ·
I bought a 90 something piece socket set at Northern Tool about 8 years ago, came with shallow 16mm sockets in 1/4", 3/8" and 1/2" and a deep in 3/8". Also from Northern Tool I bought a 20 piece deep impact SAE and metric set that came with a 16mm. I have a Stanley 30 something piece set that has shallow 1/4" and 3/8" 16mm, all the sockets are 12 point, which is why I bought it. The GearWrench 9 piece metric set comes with a 16mm, I have bought several Craftsman 11 piece metric wrench sets over the years, all have included 16mm. But I agree, a 16mm deep socket in 1/2" drive is not easy to find, especially 12 point. I have one and I bought it by itself at Napa, I think it was about $8 too.
 
#9 ·
I got one of those stanly 200 piece socket sets and it has everything but the torx
 
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