2/3 Jaw Puller Advice Needed

Does anybody make a good 2 and/or 3 jaw puller you can afford? I would really like one that can be used with two or three jaws. Farm & Fleet carries a Lisle brand puller, but it is $50. That seems a little steep. Thanks for the help!

thats one place where the money spent for a good one is money well spent in my opinion.Unfortunatly i cant think of one inexpensive one thats worth much,and i think ive tried every one of the cheap ones.( seems like evry time i need one i'm a hundred miles from home and the only place open is tractor supply or some such place). i bought a used sk at an auction for around 20 bucks and theres simply no comparison to the ones ive been trying to use. dad had a set of craftsman pullers that he used for years and they were pretty good,but not really cheap as i recall.

Harbor freight, however my opinion on cheap pullers is don't go there. They lead to way
too much excitement and to many bad words when your cheap puller breaks or binds. Might
better watch Craig's list or flea bay for a used name brand or check out pawn shops or
used tool stores. Might get a loaner from Auto zone or rent one from a rental place if you
have a full service rental store in the area.

Like the others said - just go ahead and buy the best one you can afford. I borrowed one from a friend a few years ago. Broke something on it. Went down to NAPA and bought the best one they sold, I think it was SK at the time. I sent it and the broken one home with him. It was a good lesson for me. I was out the money for a good puller, and I still didn't own one. . .

Paul

I have several Snap-On, Mac and OTC pullers, but the 2 most often used ones in my shop are an old Plomb 2 jaw puller, and my 2 Posi-Lock 3 jaw pullers.

A cheap puller can get you into more trouble in the form of damage, not pulling straight, or breaking at the worst possible time.

Not sure what the PosiLock pullers cost new, as I grabbed mine at auctions. For some reason the never seem to sell that well around here, and I think they are the best pullers on earth.

I have a couple SnapOn/BluePoint pullers and use
them occasionally.

Lisle makes some good stuff especially speciality
tools for doing specific jobs and at a reasonable
price for the advanced DIY'r. I would recommend
Lisle in these situations for this type of
mechanic (I include myself in that group).

Now as to your question. I wouldn't even think of
Lisle. Truth be told for a general 2 or 3 jaw
puller Posilock is the only way to go. In
addition $50 is entry level for that brand but I
have found if you use a puller for more than one
job a good tool is well worth the money and
cheaper in the long run.

jm2cw

jt

If you think $50 is steep then you don't want a good puller. A good puller will start out at double that and go up. IF you can't afford to spend much right now then I would look for a good used one. I would rather have ten good ones that are used verses a new China/junk one.

I spent the money and bought a MAC complete puller set twenty years ago. It had every puller they made at that time in the set. It cost me $2500 then. It has been the best tool money I ever spent. Using good pullers will allow you to get things apart without tearing them or the part up. Plus it has saved me many hours of labor by having the right puller for the job.

How big? Here's an (alleged) OTC puller for 30 bucks.

If you want a big puller it's going to be big bucks, unless of course you want to go the Harbor Freight route. Buying a cheap puller is like buying a cheap hand grenade: it's likely to blow up at a very inconvenient time.
OTC puller on ebay

HF has a good 2/3 jaw hydraulic puller, slick as snot on a
doorknob! You turn a screw, which compresses fluid, pushes
cylinder, pulls gears off.

That HF one looks interesting. I have been very happy with my HF stuff if it had good reviews. Nobody holds anything back if it is junk on that site! They aren't like Farm & Fleet where they delete your review if it hard on the product.

Here is the Lisle at Farm & Fleet. Looking at the Lisle website they only make one puller of each size. Seems decent enough.
http://www.farmandfleet.com/products/298991-reversible_gear_puller.html

The Posi-Lock pullers are pretty neat. I take it that screw thing clamps the puller jaws down on the part so using a puller isn't a 3 man job. Looks like they are around $100.

Yeah, I'm not sure that eBay one is OTC. The p/n stamped on the jaw says OEM 25919. That p/n and OTC gives you a T hydraulic fitting. It still looks like a quality puller for a fair price.

About 20 years ago I did some price checking on
pullers, and figured that W.W. Graingers had a
pretty fair price on their "Dayton" brand. I needed several size's,and "Bit the Bullet" for
about $300, (1992 Dollars)On arrival they turned
out to be OTC brand, and a vary good investment!

Good idea on the loaner. Depending of course on how often you need one.

I've said this before - that I'm usually a tool snob, and believe fully in the idea that you should always spend what you can afford on a tool, plus a little bit more. It usually pays off in the long run.

But lately - with the economy the way it is and business beig so dreadfully slow, I've been forced into harbor freight more than a few times.

It's hard to argue with some of their pricing where tools are SO cheap, even if they don't work you really haven't lost anything - and if they DO, you've saved a ton.

I have a three jaw puller from them that works just fine for general use. It's not great, but it's a whole lot better than a crow bar and hammer.

Even when/if business picks up again I'd still consider Harbor Freight for tools like that that don't have a motor. I've gotten quite a few tools so far from them, and to date not one of them has given me any trouble whatsover, or not done what it's supposed to do.

Not sure I'd say they've "impressed" me - but they've certainly surprised me. I expected much lower quality.

(quoted from post at 07:24:22 07/12/12) Good idea on the loaner. Depending of course on how often you need one.

I've said this before - that I'm usually a tool snob, and believe fully in the idea that you should always spend what you can afford on a tool, plus a little bit more. It usually pays off in the long run.

But lately - with the economy the way it is and business beig so dreadfully slow, I've been forced into harbor freight more than a few times.

It's hard to argue with some of their pricing where tools are SO cheap, even if they don't work you really haven't lost anything - and if they DO, you've saved a ton.

I have a three jaw puller from them that works just fine for general use. It's not great, but it's a whole lot better than a crow bar and hammer.

Even when/if business picks up again I'd still consider Harbor Freight for tools like that that don't have a motor. I've gotten quite a few tools so far from them, and to date not one of them has given me any trouble whatsover, or not done what it's supposed to do.

Not sure I'd say they've "impressed" me - but they've certainly surprised me. I expected much lower quality.

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That's the position I am in as well (although the ag industry is going strong until this drought. Our last three years have been our strongest ever) Anyhow...I research them online and then check them out well at the store and have not been disappointed. I have never checked my 3/8" torque wrench to see how accurate it is but that would be my biggest concern. Most critical applications I use my 1/2" Snap-On but use the HF for stuff that doesn't matter. My 1" socket set has been very good. For the $125 I feel I more than got my moneys worth. The next closest set was $750+. You had to get over a grand to have a nice looking set. Everybody says the HF bolts are junk in the reviews. There were a couple guys that said they replaced the bolts with Gr 8s and they now like their pullers. Nobody complained about the big bolt in the middle failing so that is a good thing.

I have been borrowing stuff like gear pullers from friends and neighbors for too many years. I have used them from AutoZone as well, but I usually want them now and live too far from town to justify a trip in just for that. It takes 1.5 gallons of diesel to go to town and at least an hour. There's $5.25 for fuel. In just 10 trips to town for the loaner tool I can have the F&F Lisle bought. For something like a ridge reamer I think I will continue to count on AutoZone, but it's probably time I bought a gear puller.

I agree ,to a point at least,ive used a lot of their stuff with no problems whatsoever.Bought a ball joint kit for instance,dont need one much any more,but it did work. Not as easily as the good ones we used when i worked in a real shop ,but servicable for sure. I dont think ive used it but that once,so it really wouldnt make sense for me to spend big bucks on a high dollar one. pullers,i'm not so sure,you can tear up more than you can fix with a bad one,and for me at least their used often enough to justify the expense. Ive been thinking about trying to use one of those gas motors they advertise on a little play project ive got in mind,but i really havent talked myself into it.

Looks like Grainger has a full array of convertible type 2/3 jaw pullers. Most places only have the 2/3 jaw pullers in the bigger sizes. There are a lot of times when 2 would work and 3 wouldn't or vice versa. Seems like a good way to go rather than owning twice as many pullers. The Grainger ones run from $75-$125 from the looks.

I saw one kit for $2250!!!

A good puller is worth the money. You can usually rent them.

I don't see mine on the HF site. Looks like they switched to what
looks like a cross breed between a hyd bottle jack, and a puller.
Mine is hydraulic, but uses a screw to do the pushing on the fluid.
Guess it's a little old!

(quoted from post at 16:34:51 07/12/12) I don't see mine on the HF site. Looks like they switched to what
looks like a cross breed between a hyd bottle jack, and a puller.
Mine is hydraulic, but uses a screw to do the pushing on the fluid.
Guess it's a little old!

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The new style still has pretty good reviews.