impact driver vs. impact wrench

It may seem small, but I wasted a few hours of my life over it...

...On bigfitz' otherwise wonderful how-to for airhead valve adjustment, Part 1, he says to take of the crankshaft cover you may need to use an 'impact wrench'.

Armed with that picture, I went around to Harbor Freight, Home Depot, AND Pep Boys, describing to all of them what I meant by it as well, what it did. No one could help me.

Today, doing some intense googling, I discovered that it is properly called an "impact driver." I called harbor freight; they have 13 in stock. (Do a google image search for 'impact wrench'; only air and electric power impact wrench/drills come up. When I typed "impact wrench hammer", I finally got one to show up a few pages down, from a guy on a car forum asking what the difference was between an impact driver and an impact wrench. Type in "impact driver" and several come up.)

Might be worth it to go edit that real quick so someone else doesn't have to go through that as well.

 

I guess it's a case of "old school" vs. "modern" terminology.

For the last 40+ years, the "hand" one has always been known as an "impact wrench" (probably because it's operated by "impact" from a hammer) and the air-operated type has always been referred to as an "AIR wrench." At least to me and the folks I hang with.

I figured a picture was worth 1000 words. (Apparently not to the staff at Home Depot or Harbor Freight though.)

That being said, I try to "Granny proof" all my stuff, so I will edit appropriately.

Thanks for the suggestion.

 

but here in Canada, look for an 'impact driver' and you get this:
http://www.canadiantire.ca/AST/browse/6 ... rivers.jsp

 

Different countries may have different usage as well, impact driver you bash with a hammer, impact wrench/gun are air operated here

Although the term wrench is uncommon here