Missing tire tools
 

Hello, I bought a used 2000 Silverado 1500 earlier this year and I just realized that I do not have all of my tire tools. I have a jack, but no lug wrench or extension rods to use the jack or lower the spare. I have not needed the spare yet, but I would like to be able to if the time comes. The replacement cost at a dealer is about $200 for three parts. The junk yards in my area say that the dealers come and buy them as they come in to place in the used trucks that come in without them. I have been able to make an extension to reach the tire hoist, but the connection seems to be an odd shape and size. From what I can tell, it is square and about 12mm, but I have tried several different socket sizes and points (I can't find a 4 point socket), without success. Has anyone made something that works? What are my options?
Thanks.

Try to see if you can find the parts online, but yeah, last I checked the stealership was horning people @240$ just for the jack handle.

Good news is the fitting you need is a 3/8 drive extension. The female side should slip on tight.

Maybe if you made a deposit in advance with the junkyard they'll save you a jackhandle...

3/8 drive
 

I have been trying different combinations of sockets, I thought I tried 3/8, but maybe not. Everything else on the truck seems to be metric, so I did not think that anything in inches would work. I did not want to strip it too much...I guess I could just throw the spare in the bed, eh?

Junk yards
 

Oh yeah, I also wandered around in our local (20 miles away) U pull and save for about an hour and found one bar laying on the ground that I thought might work, but didn't. It only cost $5 to try it. They said that they only take the Jacks out of the vehicles to keep people from using them in the yard, but they also took all the tools too, evidently. They were not selling them inside either.

NO, not a 3/8th socket, the actual 3/8 drive itself. Take an extension, like what you'd put between a socket and a 3/8th rachet. Flip it over. The square 3/8th drive female end should fit.

I got it figured out. I used a 3/8" to 1/2" drive adapter (which has to stay in place, because it won't fit through the plastic tube) and then a 24" 3/8" drive extension rod. I used one of those ratchet wrenches to turn the whole thing. It works, but I would like to find something less expensive to use as my ratchet. I am going to have to type up some instructions how to put the whole mess together in case someone else has to use it, or in few days when I have forgotten what I did...
Thanks for you help.

I was talking this over with my girlfriend on the phone last night, and she wonders why GM never made a wheel well right in the bed, so you could remove a well-supported tire from the bed of the truck, instead of precariously hanging the tire from underneath the bed with cheap,crappy, rusty hardware.