Griot’s Garage Form-A-Funnel - Tool Time

I call it the First Law of Funnelomics: No matter how many different funnels you have on hand, you often can’t find one that will get the job done properly. One has a spout that’s too large to fit into the filler opening, another’s spout is too short to reach it, and a couple of other funnels are too large in diameter to squeeze into the available space. Then there are those oil and coolant drain locations that have been diabolically placed so the discharged liquid must first drool over hard-to-clean mechanical parts before dripping into a pan—or all over the floor. If only someone made a universal funnel...

Well, someone does. It's the Form-A-Funnel from Griot's Garage (www.griotsgarage.com), a simple design consisting of a thin, malleable piece of aluminum alloy encased in thick, pliable Nitrile rubber. As manufactured and delivered, it's perfectly flat, but it easily can be molded into just about any reasonable shape to carry fluids into or out of their reservoirs. You just bend it into the desired configuration using your hands, and it retains that form until you either mold it into a different shape or flatten it out again. Oil, coolant and other liquids won't penetrate the rubber surface, so it cleans up easily when you're finished with either a rag or a cleaning product such as contact cleaner.

I’ve found many practical uses for a Form-A-Funnel, such as adding oil to our long-term Victory Cross Country as pictured here. The oil filler opening on that bike is buried down behind the convergence of the exhaust header pipes and beneath the rear of the right engine cover, making it a perfect application for this product. The funnel is also useful for changing the oil on some bikes with dry-sump oiling systems whose reservoir drains are less than thoughtfully located.

This product isn’t practical just for motorcycles. On my trusty old Ford van, for example, I use it when changing the oil filter, which is located directly above the front frame crossmember. Form-A-Funnel routes the used oil that spills out of the old filter into a drain pan instead of allowing it to run all over the top of the frame, the steering linkage and, eventually, onto my driveway. And when I recently flushed out my home water heater, I used the funnel to channel the escaping water into an adjacent drain. Really, the number of possible uses is limited only by the circumstances and the user’s creativity.

Although Griot’s lists just one part number (44708) for Form-A-Funnel, it’s available in three sizes. Small is 9 in. x 4 3/4 in. and lists for $9.95; Medium (shown here) is 14 1/2 x 6 1/2 for $19.95; Large is 22 x 8 1/2 for $39.95.