I am preparing for a motor swap, and am thinking of purchasing an air ratchet. What do you guys think? Are they worth it? I already have some cordless impacts. The ratchet would be in hard to reach places. Since I would also need a compressor to go along with the ratchet, would it be a worthwhile investment?

 

Initial investment is not cheap but you will thank yourself later. Plan on at least a 26 gal tank, oil lubed pump, about $400. If you have 220v you can get a 60 gal for $500. Dont buy cheap equipment because in the end you will end up buying the better stuff. Get a 50" 3/8" rubber retractable hose, trust me. The $20 pvc hoses are impossible to work with.

I bought a 30 gal, oil libed, 120v compressor in 08 and its been the best investment in my garage. I started out with all the junk tools and hoses and had to rebuy everything. Cheap air tools are useless. You dont need Mac or Snapon, but dont skimp either.

If you dont have enough money to do it now, just keep saving.

 

My personal experience with several air ratchets over the years is that they're not very powerful. It sucks to have some super hard to reach bolt and the air ratchet is the perfect idea/tool but then it just won't break the bolt loose and blows air all over your hand. Most just are not powerful enough to be used for breaking anything loose. They are helpful in tightening nuts down in tight spaces, though.

In ~12-13 years of seriously working on cars now, I've only ever been in a few situations where it would have been genuinely useful/needed (and again in several instances didn't have enough power to help).

Then again, I have a huge 120 gallon air compressor in the garage and a hoard of air tools and admittedly don't really use them much. Hell, 99% of the time I even still use a plain old lug-wrench for removing/installing wheels. For some reason I tend to favor just good old-fashioned hand tools.

 

I used to work in a shop, and all three techs that worked there used air tools, and they all loved their air ratchets. They used them all day, and everyday. iirc they used a snap-on FAR72C ratchet. That thing had enough torque to loosen bolts up to 17-18mm.

 

To me an impact gun is not needed since they don't fit in tight spots and like James just said the ratchet that can fit isn't powerfull enough, so air tools become useless in many situations. The only thing they do is speed up things like strut replacement, wheel replacement, etc and with that some elbow grease you really don't need them for that

I would invest my money in a welder and torch or some kind of lift before I do in air tools. IMO of course.

 

I always think of air ratchets as a luxury item, but I feel impact guns are almost essential.

I have found Harbor Freight Earthquake air tools to offer good performance for the price. The cheaper air tools as HF suck though.

You can also find great deals on used air compressors through Craigslist. It is easy enough to spend 10 minutes testing the compressor out in the sellers garage too.
Just make sure to open the drain valve on the tank to see how much water comes out (you just want to make sure the seller bothered to empty it and gallons don't pour out). Then let the compressor fill the tank until the pressure shutoff turns the motor on and check for leaks. The compressor should also sound pretty smooth when it is running too.

 

I worked as a Honda/Volvo tech for 12+ years and wouldn't trade my 1/4" air ratchet for anything (other than a good set of earplugs when using it). Plenty strong with a good volume of air and an absolute necessity for professional use. 3/8" I didn't find as useful. Serious knuckle buster if you aren't careful.