Damn! .. on the price of the crank tool. I got mine when GST wasn't a thing on low priced stuff.
Anyhow. Re the aux battery. I'd say earth to chassis. nothing wrong with that. Actually can be 'more handy' in a few respects anyhow.
Had an issue with my alternator some time back. One of the first things I did to mine was snorkel and aux battery. Aux battery on the passengers side battery tray, which meant air box mod, so at the same time .. made sense to also do snorkel.
So alternator died, which means(on a tdi) you can still drive(for quite awhile) .. all you need to to jump start the main batt.
Battery cables are so last century. simple cheap(ish) Redarc dual battery solenoid(VSR), with the ability to jump start(via switch) .. made having no alternator for about a week a painless issue.
New alt was got eventually, easy to fit but having the jump start just kept me going whilst busy with working(long hours) and stuff. I only had to charge the batteries once in that week.
Also, now my new issue is the still fairly new but useless Exide start battery. It has to go now .. had enough of it. Just doesn't have the guts to start the tdi as it should. So far as it's summer and hence warmer, I haven't had to use the jump start feature, but if I don't rid myself of this useless Exide battery colder winter starts will require it.
So my recommendation would be to keep them linked, use a dual battery reg of some type(see Traxide products too).
Another tool to have in mind(as I think you mentioned it) is the box spanner type socket for wheel bearings(the nuts).. IIRC 52mm.
I got a $12 cheapo with no sq drive for socket wrench(ie. torque wrench). It only had through holes for a bar and I didn't like it so welded a spare 1/2" socket drive a fairly useless 1/4" to 1/2" adapter. Easy to do it(maybe 10 mins of cut and weld).
I have seen proper 52mm sockets, but a bit exxy for just doing the wheel bearing nuts(maybe once in 5 years or so).
Arthur.
'99 D1 300Tdi Auto
'03 D2 Td5 Auto
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