Royal Enfield tool is novel, but what is it good for?

Royal Enfield four-way wrench fits handlebar bolts. 

 My investigation convinced me. The clever little "ENFIELD" wrench often seen advertised on eBay was, historically, a tool Royal Enfield put in the tool kits of Royal Enfields made in Redditch, England before the company ceased production there.

 But what was the little four-way "Combination Spanner" supposed to be used to do? Turns out, the answer is of more than mere practical importance.

 First, let's review the record of authenticity.

 There is evidence of originality found in the files of Royal Enfield authorities including Allan Hitchcock of Hitchcock's Motorcycles and Royal Enfield Owners Club UK archivist Bob Murdoch.

Allan (and Royal Enfield enthusiast Chris Overton) pointed out that the part number for the tool is 6406, a remarkably low number in Royal Enfield parts books. It has been a part of Royal Enfields for a long time.

Allan emailed a technical drawing of the No. 6406 "Combination Spanner" that says it was for the "2 Stroke and 8 H.P." Those are references to Royal Enfield models of the 1920s!

A forum member who signs himself Rohan pointed to a drawing of the tool in a 1937 Royal Enfield parts book.

Bob Murdoch provided this photo of the wrench included in 1936 tool kit.

And then Bob provided an actual photograph showing the ENFIELD tool among the items that a 1936 Royal Enfield tool box would contain. 

I also reached out to other Royal Enfield owners. I wrote a letter to the editor of The Gun magazine, official publication of the Royal Enfield Owners Club UK.

"Curious if anyone out there with a UK-made Royal Enfield has a believed-original tool kit with their Royal Enfield that includes the cute little four-way combination spanner?" I wrote.

"If you have one, what year Royal Enfield did it arrive with, and does it have the ENFIELD branding and does it look like the one in this photo?"

The Gun graciously printed my letter and photo in the October/November 2021 issue. Perhaps answers to my questions will be in the December/January or later editions of The Gun. I included my email address, David@RoyalEnfields.com in the hope of receiving more immediate answers.

So far there have been only two emailed responses, both including photos of the writer's ENFIELD tool atop my letter and photo.

Jacqui Furneaux sent a photo of her Royal Enfield wrench.

One email was from Jacqui Furneaux, who travels the world on her Royal Enfield Bullet. She is the author of "Hit the Road, Jac! Seven Years, Twenty Countries, No Plan."

"Some years ago, a friend gave me this spanner. He'd found it in his tool box and thought it might be useful to me but I have yet to find a use for it! Instead it is an ornament in my sitting room," she wrote.

Wherever her friend got it, her wrench has obviously been well used, for tasks besides being an ornament.

This is less true of the tool in the photo sent by Alan Styles of the UK.

Shadows are deceiving but Alan's copy of the wrench is much like mine.

"It has been in workshop for some time, having bought it from an auto fair a while ago I think... It's a nice tool though, and a good keepsake, although I've not actually tried using it on one of my Indian Enfields," he wrote. 

Inquiries I made about the wrench on forums brought responses from Royal Enfield enthusiasts who've seen or even own examples of the wrench. Rohan has an ENFIELD wrench but he also has very similar (but not exactly identical) tools labeled not ENFIELD, but B.S.A.!

Rohan's collection of ENFIELD and B.S.A. wrenches.
B.S.A. put its name on the other side of the wrench.

Curious, I purchased an ENFIELD wrench for myself from an eBay seller in Cape Neddick, Maine. The seller didn't know much about the tool, having purchased it himself "from an elderly tool dealer in Standish, Maine."

I unwrapped it, anxious to discover what tasks it would accomplish on my Royal Enfield Bullet.

My Bullet is a 1999 model, from India, so I didn't expect the old wrench to fit many fasteners. But some of the nuts and bolts on my Enfield are Whitworth sizes, so it was worth a try.

My Royal Enfield four-way wrench fit this nut perfectly, 
but was too clumsy to adjust the pushrods under the cover.

I was honestly surprised when the four sizes available on the Combination Spanner fit almost nothing on my Enfield. Even when it did undo the nut holding the pushrod adjustment cover, it was too awkward to adjust the pushrods themselves.

It wouldn't open the oil drain plugs in the motor, adjust the spokes or the brakes. But it fit the bolts that hold the handlebars

It worked to open the oil-level inspection hole on the four-speed Albion gearbox, but did not open the gearbox oil filler hole. Now this isn't just odd, it's telling. That's because the gearbox oil filler plug on my 1999 Indian-made Royal Enfield Bullet is not from 1999. It's much older.

Royal Enfield wrench opens the gearbox oil level inspection hole...

Chris Overton sent it to me when I noted that the older filler plugs were labeled (in tiny type) with the varieties of oil approved for use in the gearbox. I thought that was pretty cool.

Chris got the old filler plug from a gearbox he believes was used on a Royal Enfield built in 1958 for an Indian Apache or Chief.

It would have made sense for the ENFIELD tool to let the user add oil to the gearbox.

...but if you need to add oil  to gearbox you'll need a different wrench.

To be fair, the four-way wrench ought to be handy as hell, in theory.

The toolkit supplied with my 1999 Bullet contains wrenches marked with the Whitworth and British Standard sizes they fit. Comparing these to the openings on the four-way wrench to my toolkit wrenches I found that they do correspond to Whitworth and British Standard sizes.

From smallest to largest, the openings are:

1/8W or 3/16BS

3/16W or 1/4BS

1/4W or 5/16BS

5/16W or 3/8BS

All useful sizes. But trying to even use this little tool immediately demonstrates its limitations.

Comparing my size-labeled wrenches to ENFIELD wrench.

With two sizes at each end of the wrench, the ends are twice as thick as a normal wrench. There's often not room for the thicker-than-usual wrench to get where it would need to be.

It's short: only 4.25 inches. That doesn't give much leverage.

Two of the openings are partly rounded, deliberately reducing their grip on a nut. It's as though the main use for this wrench would be in rounding off the edges of everything it touches.

And it's heavy for its size: 3.5 ounces. It will fit in your pocket but you won't like carrying it there.

Were the four-way ENFIELD wrenches just a marketing gimmick? As a novelty item they make a great keepsake. Maybe that is all they were intended to be?

Part No. 6406 "Open End Wrench Combination" is number 12 
in 1955-'58 Indian Woodsman and Westerner parts book.

This does not answer why Royal Enfield apparently thought for decades of production that part No. 6406 belonged in your tool kit. After all, it's in the parts books.

In fact it's even in parts books for Royal Enfields that were badged as Indians and sold in America in the 1950s. (This perhaps explains why the little four-way tool often turns up on eBay in the U.S.)

Could the explanation be in the technical drawing Allan Hitchcock showed me? Is it possible that the tool was developed for specific purposes on the 8 H.P. and two-stroke models of the 1920s and it afterwards simply became a fixture, although specific needs changed?

What do you think? I'm still hoping to find clues from people who have the little wrench.

4-way wrench has long history in Royal Enfield tool kits

The little four-way wrench claims to be an "ENFIELD" product. 

It's a clever little tool, the "ENFIELD" multi-wrench that often shows up for sale on eBay. 

Double-ended, it handles two different sizes of bolt heads at each end. The advertisers usually tout it as being for "Royal Enfields." After all, it is boldly labelled "Enfield," isn't it? 

But is it really a Royal Enfield tool? Was it really in the tool kit of a Royal Enfield motorcycle? 

Once it is separated from the motorcycle, how can we be sure? Is it just a tool from the city of Enfield, in the UK? Is it from some other company someplace that just happens to use the name Enfield on its products? 

It seems suspicious that so many of these particular wrenches turn up on eBay in the United States. There are at least three there as I write.

Clever multi-wrench handles two sizes at each end.

How did that happen in the U.S., a country where, historically, relatively few Royal Enfields from Britain were sold? (I bought a 1999 Royal Enfield from India and I can tell you that no such tool was in its tool kit, so India is not where they are coming from.)

I wondered.

The wrench seems a great little gizmo to have, if it has genuine Royal Enfield provenance. Otherwise, it would be just another gadget in a drawer. I have all the wrenches I really need in my tool kit.

How could I be sure?

At the suggestion of Royal Enfield enthusiast Chris Overton I looked in the Royal Enfield parts books posted online by Hitchcocks motorcycles.

And there it was, identified as the Part No. 6406, the "Combination Spanner."

It shows up in the parts book for the 1946 125cc (the Flying Flea), the 1949 350cc Bullet and the 1958 500cc Bullet. It shows up in the tool kit of for the 1967 Interceptor Series 1A. It even appears in the toolkit of the 1969 Interceptor Series 2, end of the line for Royal Enfield motorcycles manufactured in Britain.

Wow. So many years; so many tool kits. That might explain why so many of these wrenches are available, even in the United States.

Someone might junk a motorcycle that was used up, but as a practical matter save the tools it came with. Nothing wrong with the tools. They'll probably outlive us all.

But wait: the drawings in the Hitchcocks parts books I examined didn't show the tool as being labelled ENFIELD. In fact, none of the tools in the parts books I looked at were marked as Royal Enfield products!

So I was still suspicious. Did Royal Enfield really mark its tools "ENFIELD"? Had there been an unrelated Enfield tool company out there somewhere, producing multi-wrenches?

Chris had another suggestion: write to Allan Hitchcock at Hitchcock's motorcycles and ask what the Royal Enfield technical drawings show about the wrench. (Hitchcocks has the factory drawings, starting from Part No. 1.)

I admit my first thought was "Oh, sure, like Hitchcocks has nothing better to do!" So I was delighted to get the following answer almost immediately, from Allan Hitchcock himself:

"It does amaze me, that small things can give so much interest and take up so much time but I totally get it and fall into the same trap myself all too often, but somehow as long as you get to the bottom of it, it is so rewarding," he wrote.

He noted, as had Chris, that Part No. 6406 is a relatively low number in Royal Enfield's long history. Allan guessed it might go back to around 1920.

Royal Enfield factory drawing of the multi-wrench: Not quite like eBay.

The original drawing is gone, but he sent a photo of a 1965 redrawing of the part. Perhaps the old drawing had worn out, or, since the part was still being issued, the drawing needed to be revised to bring it into line with a then current template, Allan theorized.

I was stunned to see the 1965 drawing carried over the notation that the "Combination Spanner" was for the "2 Stroke and 8 H.P." These are references to Royal Enfield models of the 1920s! These wrenches have been riding around in Royal Enfield tool boxes for a century!

But... wait. It wasn't going to be quite that easy.

Neither the technical drawing from Allan nor the tools I'd seen in the parts books on Hitchcocks' website showed the word ENFIELD on the tool.

What's more the tool shown in the technical drawing was depicted with only squared-off jaws. The tools offered for sale on eBay typically show an opening that takes a hexagonal shape.

Were the wrenches really the same thing? In an effort to find out, I posted my question on the BritBike.com Royal Enfield forum. What did the enthusiasts there have to say?

Well, first of all, they wanted to know how big a wrench were we talking about? What size bolts or nuts would it fit?

Chris Overton chipped in to translate the jaw sizes shown for the multi-tool in the Hitchcocks drawing.

"The large end sizes are 3/8-inch British Standard (5/16 Whitworth) and 5/16 British Standard (1/4 Whitworth) with .005-inch clearance over the nut and bolt head sizes. The small end sizes are actually 7/16 and 5/16 Across Flats, but would likely fit 1/4 British Standard (3/16 Whitworth) and #8 and #10  if they were made to stove bolt tolerances."

This could have been helpful, if only the eBay sellers provided measurements of their goods! They never seemed to do so and, in fact, the photos they include typically show nothing (not even a coin) to provide context. Even the overall length of the wrench would have been helpful to know: the 1965 Hitchcocks document shows the wrench should be 4 1/4 inches long.

A longtime BritBike forum member from Australia solved the mystery.

"Rohan" finally answered my question to my satisfaction by providing an image from a 1937 Royal Enfield parts book showing the tool. Not only did the 1937 image show the bold ENFIELD name on it, but it also depicted the wrench with the hexagonal features visible in the eBay ads.

There it is; note the hexagonal suggestion at one jaw opening.

More was yet to come. Royal Enfield Owners Club UK archivist Bob Murdoch pitched in to help after I sent an inquiry to him at reoc.archive34@gmail.com

Incredibly, to me, he found early photographs of the tool in exactly the form it's so frequently seen on eBay

"I've found the 1936 photographs used to illustrate the parts books for the new range of upright-cylinder G, H, J, JF and L models," he wrote. "They shared many common parts, including the hinged metal toolbox and apparently, the same tools within. I'm sure that your exact spanner (wrench) is the one in this photo. You can just read the word ENFIELD!"

I'd had no idea that Royal Enfield took actual photographs of parts (visibly taped to a board) and then traced them to produce the parts book illustrations.

Actual 1936 photograph includes the Combination Spanner.

"I can tell you that hundreds of hours would have been spent tracing and shading the photographs to make these beautiful illustrations," Bob wrote.

He also sent me examples of scanning he has done to add factory manuals from 1914-1946, magazine road tests, and other materials to the club library. Reader, have you joined the Royal Enfield Owners Club UK?

Among the scans Bob sent me was the 1955-58 Indian Woodsman/Westerner Parts List. This illustrates in detail the 500cc Royal Enfield single shipped to the U.S. in those years. Was the little Combination Spanner in their tool kits? If so, that would help explain why so many of these tools would be, apparently, in the U.S. (judging from the number of offerings on eBay).

And there it is, on Page 62, numbered 6406 as it should be and looking like the one photographed in 1936. (Although ENFIELD branding is not shown in the drawing, it presumably was present unless they took the unlikely step of deleting it for Indian use.)

I'm now satisfied. The Enfield combination spanner is genuine Royal Enfield kit.

Yes, my Royal Enfield tool kit includes a bungee

The tool kit on my Royal Enfield Bullet shamelessly includes a bungee cord.

I've long since documented the important relationship between Royal Enfield motorcycles and the common bungee cord.

Wrote one Royal Enfield owner, in 2015: "The charming bungee cords are responsible for holding the storage compartments closed and keeping the center stand up. The locks on the little compartments rattled off a long time ago (this is a single-cylinder bike after all; lots of vibration) and the center stand spring has sprung."

I've also admitted that a bungee cord holds a place of honor inside the toolbox on my own Royal Enfield Bullet — just in case.

Nevertheless, I was unaware of the long history of the bungee cord in British engineering.

Recently, looking up the entry on the World War II Bristol Blenheim bomber in Wikipedia, I encountered this factoid:

"Like most contemporary British aircraft, the bomb bay doors were kept closed with bungee cords and opened under the weight of the released bombs. Because there was no way to predict how long it would take for the bombs to force the doors open, bombing accuracy was consequently poor."

The Bristol Blenheim, proud military user of bungee cords.

Turning to the Wikipedia entry for bungee cords themselves,  I learned that the connection to aviation was nothing new, even by World War II.

"Bungee cords have been used to provide a lightweight suspension for aircraft undercarriages from before World War I, and are still used on many small home built aircraft where weight remains critical. Bungee cords were also used in parachuting to assist in opening the old-style parachute container after the ripcord was pulled."

So, long before anyone ever thought to jump off a bridge only to be saved from death by a bungee cord, aviators were literally betting their lives on bungees.

Next time I need a bungee to strap up the center stand of my Royal Enfield, I'll be more respectful.

This valiant tool isn't the source of shame I had assumed.

Classic Royal Enfields carried tools in classy cases

This 1911 Royal Enfield Model 160 twin got along with only a small tool kit.

I appreciate the enormously practical toolbox on each side of my 1999 Royal Enfield Bullet. With careful packing, these swallow just about everything I really need to carry. Even my rain gear, if I squeeze!

(In actual fact I find it more convenient to carry the rain gear in a back pack, where it can be stuffed wet and without careful repacking when the sun peeks out again.)

But there is no arguing that the tidy leather tool kits attached to the sides of really old Royal Enfields are attractive. Three Royal Enfields up for auction June 7, 2014 at the Historics at Brooklands event captured my eye.

The Royal Enfield gun embellishes the tool box of this 1911 Model 160.

Here are three lovely vintage machines, separated by decades, with a distinctly similar take on how tools are to be carried.

The 1927 Model K has much the same kit, but one on each side.

These old motorcycles undoubtedly needed much fiddling. Nevertheless, the accomplished roadside mechanic apparently was expected to do with no more tools than a woman of today could carry in her purse.

(Now there's a thought!)

The 1932 Model K still offers two leather kit bags.

In each case, the leather box seems to be supported and encased to some degree by a metal structure attached to the motorcycle. It would be only one step more to put a hinged metal door on it, but this was years in coming.

Lovely as these tool boxes are, the streamlined, all-metal toolboxes on the post-war Bullet must have seemed thrillingly modern and convenient when they came along.

What's missing from my tool kit? 3 things

There is no use being didactic about what you should carry in your Royal Enfield motorcycle tool kit. Your choices, like mine, will tell you more about your psychology than the motorcycle's likely ills.

For instance, I make room for the 11/32nds screwdriver socket wrench because it is ideal for setting the timing on a test run. That's an infrequent job, and usually done on a special outing, so it would be easy to keep the tool in my garage and pull it out only when needed. But the fact is that I don't want to bother having to look for it, so I keep it in the Bullet's tool kit because I'm lazy!

The number of cloths and wipes I've squirreled away on the Bullet is loony. Every roadside repair is likely to be a greasy mess, but carrying eight rags and towels is just eating up room.

And why am I carrying the tire prying irons if I don't have a spare inner tube or even a patching kit? (For that matter, I also don't have a tire pump to re-inflate a repaired tube.) The reason is simple: the pry bars came with my tool kit from the factory and, sentimentally, I like to keep the original tools together.

This applies to the factory-supplied tube wrenches I carry. They're fairly crude, and the one that fits the spark plug is a sloppy fit. I prefer to baby my spark plug with a socket that caresses it with a foam insert. But my foam filled socket is kept in my garage, where it will be of no use roadside.

It's silly of me to not carry any screwdrivers. True, the Leatherman tool on my belt provides them, but the folding nature of the tool means they are somewhat weak; they could never be used to pry anything apart. Also, it's awkward getting the tool into small places to use them.

The "missing tool" most complained about in the factory kit is the lack of any wrench or socket big enough to remove the big rear axle snub nut . I don't have any wrench in my garage that will do the job and yet fit into the Bullet's tool boxes -- a seeming dilemma. My excuse for not worrying about this is that I don't think I will ever need that tool roadside.

Why? Because the Bullet's Quick Detach rear wheel can be removed without loosening the snub nut. Remove the castellated nut (a factory wrench does fit that) and "pull" out the axle. The wheel now comes off and you can stand on the tire sidewalls to get it off the rim and pull out the inner tube for repair or replacement.

Thing is, you probably are going to have to "gently" hammer on the axle to get it out; and I don't carry a hammer. If I had a wrench big enough to remove the axle snub nut, I suppose I could use it as a hammer!

The biggest waste of space in my tool kit is the tiny jar of motor oil (it's actually a 35mm film container). That little oil will never "top up" a Bullet seriously low on oil. If a bit of oil is needed for lubrication, I could always get it off the dipstick.

I used to carry my spare inner tube, but I didn't like the way it had to fold and pinch to fit into the tool box.

The biggest shortcoming in my kit is pointed out in the comment by StL Stadtroller (see previous item). I have no electrical repair tape or tape of any kind for that matter.

The comment from Chris Bartlett notes that he carries a flashlight. That is an awfully important item on a dark night. For the moment, I'm going to say that the miniature flashlight on my keyring will suffice.

So, the "Three Things" I most need to add to my tool kit, in my opinion:

• Screwdrivers.


• Electrical tape.


• Tire inflator/patcher.

What's in your motorcycle tool kit?

Classic Royal Enfield Bullet motorcycles came with two spacious tool boxes. The factory supplied a tool kit, one spare fuse and some bikes even carried a spare inner tube when customers picked them up.

Experience quickly taught riders that more was needed. I learned fast that it was essential to carry a spare clutch cable. But that wasn't all I found necessary. I recently inventoried my tool boxes to discover that the main thing I had added was rags for wiping up after roadside repairs!

Although the list of things I carry is long, it is by no means satisfactory. I notice that I have left out at least three essentials. Can you guess what they are? Here's what I DO have:

Left tool box

• Leather fanny pack to contain tools.
• 1 rag to cushion fanny pack inside tool box.
• 3 additional rags.
• Factory Whitworth wrenches.
• Tube sockets and bar to turn them.
• Adjustable spanner.
• Pliers.
• Spark plug gaping tool.
• Bent bit of metal for feeling for piston at TDC.
• Tire prying irons.
• Screwdriver socket for adjusting points set.
• Tiny bottle of motor oil.
• Bungee cord.
• See-through plastic pouch to contain supplies.
• Allen wrench for tightening controls on handlebars.
• Wet wipe (probably long since dried up).
• 2 paper rags.
• Box of 20 Amp fuses (5).
• Chain master link.
• Tire valve cap with wrench end.
• Spark plug (pre-gapped).
• Bolt for left-side shift bodge.
• Clutch lever cable retainer.

Right tool box

• Owner's manual.
• Insurance card.
• Registration.
• Wet wipe (probably long since dried up).
• Throttle cable.
• Clutch cable.
• Plastic bags to keep these dry.

Next time: What's missing? If you'd like to guess what I have in mind, let me just add that I always wear a Leatherman tool, which provides standard and Phillip's screwdrivers, another pliers and a knife.