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sr20deman, DO NOT under any circumstances whatsoever use that thing for anything whatsoever, except MAYBE for lug nuts. That'll be a half or 3/4 drive and is for putting together D9 Cats. AND those pointer sticks re only accurate +/- 50 lbs at best. an 800 pounder is a big mother.
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'93 B13, etc.
If you don't have the patience
to do it right the first time,
how is it you have the time to
do it over and over again?
My dads torque wrench doesnt have any kind of spring at all. It looks basically like a long breaker bar with an extra small rod attached to the socket end. This small rod comes back down the chaft of the wrench (not attached to it) and has a pointer on the end that points to a chart type thing attached to the handle of the wrench. The chart acts as a ruler for torque. The more pressure you put on the wrench, the more the shaft bends, but the small shaft doesnt, so the small shaft 'moves' on the "ruler/chart" and gives you yoru reading.
Is this common? IM guessing its just a real cheapo brand? It goes up quite high (maybe 500-800 ft lbs)
that is a beam indicator type wrench. the wrench you have is way too big for anything but lug nuts on a semi.
oops... i sorta kinda did my entire jdm swap with that torque wrench. My dad is an excavator with two giant backhoe's and a dump truck, so yeah thats why he has such a huge mother effin torque wrench.
If anything my bolts will be tighter than looser, since I went over the reading just to make sure it was dead on. The beam is only about 5/8" wide and its 1/2 drive, so its not TOO huge. It reads inch lbs as well.
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92 NX2000 Highport JDM sr20de Custom W.A.I., Full 2.25" Exhaust w/Apexi WS2, Prothane Motor Mounts, Coilovers, F & R Strut bars, AC delete, Bumped timing, Ziex 512 rubber, Custom Grounding Kit.
Tighter is not necessarily better. Go buy yourself a decent torque wrench - doesn't have to be a kilodollar snapon - and re-do what you can put a socket on to the correct torques. You're likely plus/minus 100%. VERY lucky you didn't snap a bolt head. Go look at cortrim1's posts on brands, there are also some to avoid. See motto below.
Tighter is not necessarily better. Go buy yourself a decent torque wrench - doesn't have to be a kilodollar snapon - and re-do what you can put a socket on to the correct torques. You're likely plus/minus 100%. VERY lucky you didn't snap a bolt head. Go look at cortrim1's posts on brands, there are also some to avoid. See motto below.
Ok, that's a bit over the top. When used properly a beam type torque wrench has an accuracy of at least +/- 5%. Sure it's not as accurate as a click-type torque wrench, but it doesn't need calibrated either. sr20DEman, the torque wrench you used was not 800 ft-lbs - probably more like 100 or 150 ft-lbs. If you used the wrench properly (not touching the handle to the bar) I wouldn't stress over it - especially for any bolts in the 30-80 ft-lb range.
Depends on what you're putting together. If you're just bolting on wheels or putting on control arms, a beam wrench will do. Most of what you put together in a long block or used motor swap you'll get away with. But sorry, it will NOT do if you're putting an engine together that you expect to stay together at 7500 revs all day. Or more. That kind of slop is why so many of the folks on this forum are always whining that their cars fall apart. See motto. And yes, people DO put together D9 Cats with 800 lb wrenches. But not the engines. Even diesel wrenches use decent torque tools.
I've had a cheapo $20 foot pound torgue wrench for years and although I've not had it calibrated or checked it against a newer wrench, I'm pretty sure it's still fairly accurate. In the last year I bought a cheap inch pound torque wrench from Harbor Freight but haven't had to use it yet. If I had to guess, wrenches that offer a large range of torque probably aren't as accurate as those that offer a tighter range. Cortrim1 might be able to confirm the validity of that statement.
I think a lot of people break bolts/strip threads when using torque wrenches because they get carried away with the leverage and move too quickly, and overtorque things. Once you're hand snug you should take your time torquing things, especially at lower settings. The wrench can't react instantaneously, you have to give it a chance.
I called my dad today, it was the 150 lb wrench i was using, not the big SOB 800 lb (or bigger) one he also has. I did make sure everything was tighter than looser to spec. So I should be fine. I took my time and went over everything about 4 times (especially the flywheel bolts) in the right order, and torqued it down real slow and easy. I had/have no problems, no leaks.
I may be being too picky, but in my early days I learned from an engineer with whom I got to rebuild Traco small block Chevys for McLaren Group 7 cars - back in those days a 350 was only worth maybe 550-600 hp, but you still wanted them to stay together for the entire race. If I had even come near his property with a Harbor Freight torque wrench I would have been shot on sight. That being said, and Rob being chided yet nevertheless highly respected, he IS right about staged torquing - 40 lbs would be in AT LEAST three stages - hand snug, 20, 40, and if you were building an engine, 3 or 4 stages, all in proper fsm pattern. I repeat, sr20deman, you DO NOT DO NOT DO NOT DO NOT overtorque. If you have no choice but to use a cheap wrench, pick the middle of the range - 37-42 lbs you'd pick 39-40, for example, and LEAVE IT (oh, okay, go back and check 'em at least once to make sure you didn't miss, BUT AT THE PROPER TORQUE SETTING). Come back LATER after it's been hot a couple times, like for the exhaust manifold, and retorque. And don't forget the primary connector either, it'll come loose too. Three times and it'll stay put. Head same issue, altho twice for that pita is usually enough. The REASONS you do not overtorque is (1) you stress and overstretch the bolt making sure you'll never get the torque right again (that's suicide for an engine) and (2) you risk warping whatever it is you're torquing. There are reasons why Sandy at Quicksilver Race Engines hardly ever loses one, and that's one of them.
Last edited by jerryeads : 05-06-2006 at 03:54 PM.
I think a lot of people break bolts/strip threads when using torque wrenches because they get carried away with the leverage and move too quickly, and overtorque things. Once you're hand snug you should take your time torquing things, especially at lower settings. The wrench can't react instantaneously, you have to give it a chance.
side loading and using the wrong size wrench will cause bolts to shear off every time.
Sorry to bring this thread back to life. I've seen some pretty good prices on ebay for snap on wrenches.
Just to clear something up as I've never bought a snap on product. Do they cover their torque wrenches with a lifetime warranty?
Do you need to pay for calibration?
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"Does it matter if the door handle lasts 10 years or 20?" Pelata says. "No it does not, because the person will not have the car after 10 years."
-Enjoying my old school nissan quality, day after day
Craftsmen torque wrenches are CRAP, the nuts in the end always come loose!!!!!!!! Stupid pieces of crap...I've broken one too many bolts because of crafstman crap.
yeah craftsman Torque wrenches arent too good. Youre just as good off w/ a Haarbor Fright Chinaman special (which I use for big sh*t like lugs and suspension)
Snap-On and CDI are by far the most accurate and durable.
Nobody will ever warranty the calibration on a torque wrench. The spring is the sensing element. Springs wear, no matter how you look at it. Thats why a good thing to do to maximize your Tq Wrench's life is always return it to its lowest setting after each use and never store it compressed. Don t set it any lower than the lowest setting cause then you can unseat the spring, also....
I kind of miss working in a calibration lab :p
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~jRod
Quote:
Originally Posted by Random Genius
"...Everyone in California is easy to deal with, in the mid-west people are so uptight and their first reaction is to get pissy to try and get results. Makes me want to move to California!..."
I see they have a new digital torque wrench, for like $179 if you're craftsman club member, I may upgrade and throw the other ones in the trash. I dont understand why the nut that holds the handle on always comes off?? I've had like THREE do it.
the snap-on digitals are amazingly accurate! We used to calibrate those to +/- 1%FS whereas all other mechanical Tq wrenches were calibrated to +/-3% FS
those bitches are dead on....
A way to stop the nut from backing out of the handle is to fill it w/ lead (thick ass plumbing solder and a propane torch would be easier/cheaper unless you had a lead melting pot laying around like we did :p
)
