Spare tire lowering wrench or driver alternative
 

The spare tire wrench, which seems to consist of a slippery stainless round 'wrench' and an extension, then a cross member, which is used to crank the whole assembly is pretty poorly designed on my 93 Toyota. I had a flat the other day, and had no instructions. I attempted to attache the extention to the stainless wrench and quickly lost the nut that perhaps was meant to tighten the two together - the extension and the round wrench. However I did not have a screwdriver and could not really have tightened it. Shouldn't there be a groove for the nut to fit into on the round wrench piece? Then the wrench does not really fit very well into the lowering mechanism.

So any ideas on an alternative to this poorly designed implement. Are there newer models which have better parts - where the wrench would also fit the lowering mechanism?

It took me a half an hour to lower the tire without being able to use it the way it was intended!

I attached photos.

Toyota 4-Runner Spare Tire lowering tool alternative
 

A neighbor helped me create a perfect tool for the job.

I bought a Snap-on Spare Tire Access Tool on E-bay - cheap. Thought it would work. But the end - screw-driver type end was only about 3/4 inch wide. Not enough to get purchase in the lowering mechanism on the vehicle. Photo below. It's part STRT25
http://www.snapon.com/International/...=6%2F21%2F2004

So a neighbor drilled a hole in it and put in a bolt - then fastened two nuts on each side.

Fits perfectly in the cross-shaped hole of the lowering mechanism. Took less than 2 minutes to put tire back on (usually slower than lowering it!).