can't never could...until it tried. been rebuilding atv engnes now, going on over 30 plus yrs, yes..the wsm tells you to use such and such tools to do such and such task ?..got news for ya ?, in the real world..we do what ever it takes to make it work, what i mean by this is..just because the manual say's you need a 2k dollar tool to do a task ?..doesn't mean there isn't more than one way to skin a cat ! ( old saying..please don't skin any cats ! )..i've been down this road soooo many times..and i have learned to not go by the book. yes..EVERYONE has the ability, time, place, tools to do the job ?..the real question they should be asking themselves is ?..are they willing to try ?..once you get over this hang up ?..you will make your job sooo much easier..been there, stay there...keep doing it every day.
hand tools and drivers, that kind of stuff...yes.
electronic diagnosis tools, dealer only. Believe me, I've tried. And still am-on this Kawasaki. There is no other way because in order to properly do this job that I'm doing you need to see what the ECU is seeing-NOT what the DVOM says, because there is a stark difference. I proved this to the kawasaki guys waaaaayyy back, around 2000 when the jet ski DI's were starting to give problems. Oh just use your DVOM to set the TPS, sounds legit. DVOM says 0.73v. ECU sees 0.70v, voltage drop through the connections and wiring...and .02v on those things is the difference between a happy engine and a ventilated crankcase. REALLY sensitive.
Diagmaster from Kubota-you can buy it from one of the many scam sites, but you have to get a license key, which is tethered to Kubota, and "they know". Only way you can properly fix the common rail kubota's. People try, and they think they succeed but diagmaster is the only right way. DPF cleaning is a prime example. Sure you can pull it off and have it baked out, reinstall it and it'll work. But you didn't reset the DPF regeneration time frequency and several other parameters-so the job is only half done. People often change injectors, but to do it properly, you need the ability to program in the serial number from the new injectors to which cylinder it's going into. That also goes for some trucks-my brother works on school buses and has to go through all this stuff on a daily basis.
Outboard motors...Yamaha...another one. YDS is the proper way, and I am not sure it's available to anyone but dealers (also dealer licensed and activated--that license costs money too).
Reasoning behind this isn't greed, it's because the government kinda forces it. Particuarly on diesels, one can easily make changes with a keystroke that will affect emissions, and they don't want just anyone having that ability. Nor do they want you to have the ability to burn your own engnie to the ground-although with a few yamaha and kawasaki models (and probably honda, ktm, others), that ability is there, and available to about everyone-but those models do not have much (if any) of a warranty, either.
Polaris, digital wrench. But I think about anyone can buy it, but not everyone can activate it-gotta have dealer credentials.
probably quite a few others as well. John Deere comes to mind as well. Deere got into a peein' match over "proprietary" tooling, don't know if it was settled or not-and don't know what the outcome is/was.
But yea I understand totally where you're going with that, and I've been able to get by with a lot of tools that I've made over the years. Just today I had to change a fuel pump in a Ranger XP 1000, which needs the big nut taken off (about a 4 1/2" diameter). There is a tool specifically for that. In the past i've been able to use channel locks, BUT the proper torque on that PFA nut is 84 lb-ft, and because of where it's located, you are NOT going to get 84 lb-ft on it with channel locks, period. That tool is required to do it properly. Lots of guys do it with those groove joint pliers as I have for years on older models, but I had to buy the tool. The right tool, it takes maybe 5 minutes to change the pump, and you can actually torque it properly with a torque wrench. Or use groove-joint plier, and "hope" you got it tight enough, to properly compress the gasket so it doesn't leak. All it'd take is a little bit of a leak there and someone smoking a cigarette & drop it, and then you have a big problem. A bigger problem when they find out you didn't properly torque it...now YOU (the tech) are carrying more liability--and that is a real issue. Dealer is gonna say "why didn't you use the PFA nut socket?"--cause you didn't have one, and dealer is gonna try to protect themselves but ultimately you, the tech, are the one who was liable-and that will loom over you for years, decades. I know someone who went through something similar and trust me when I say this-it's a nightmare. Avoid it if possible.
on the pfa nut, one could change it yourself at home, saves an hour's labor. But then you gotta buy a $50 set of groove-joint pliers, take half the machine apart to make access on some of them (some of them you take the entire front end off and remove the fuel tank...I gotta do one tomorrow). OR, option #2, make the tool. Easy enough. 1/4" thick plate of steel, measure it out, cut it out, then cut the grooves in it to it'll fit over the projections on the nut, then bend another piece into a c-channel shape, so it fits across the top of the nut, then put a square hole in it so your ratchet fits. Now you just bought a $5 piece of 1/4" plate from the scrap yard, you bought a $150 grinder to cut grooves in it and to clean the rust off, you bought a $1000 (or whatever) welder to weld the pieces, a $100 vise to bend the metal, and several cutting tools, and you spent the entire day (8-9 hours) making that tool. Paying the dealer $150 in labor to do it is pretty nice at that point. But no, that owner is going to make the tool, and post online that they did it for $5. LOL.