Armen
Serious Thumper
Offline
Half-Witted Wrench-Jockey from Jersey
Posts: 1452
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What little I know: I don't know how many torque wrenches I have. Somewhere between a dozen or two. American, German, Asian, etc. I've had pretty good luck with all of them. None were low end garbage. Spent anywhere from $80-$400 on them. Taught motorcycle maintenance for 36 years. Saw lots of busted fasteners. So... A torque wrench is a measuring device. Most meters are most accurate in the top 90% of their range. Think of an analogue volt meter. Imagine you have one that goes 0-1000 Volts. You wouldn't think of using it to read one volt, right? Needle would barely be off the peg. Likewise with torque wrenches. You'll need two-one for the little stuff, one for the bigger stuff. Maybe Inch pounds for the small stuff, foot pounds for the bigger. Have some overlap so you aren't using the bottom range of the bigger wrench. You have a free way to check the calibration of your click type torque wrench. Nice, because when I send my Snap On ones in for calibration they charge $75 to do that. Take the bend beam torque wrench, find an 8 or 12 point socket that fits on it and also fits the male end of the click wrench. Set the click wrench for a number more than 10% of it's lowest reading. Turn the wrenches against each other and watch the bend beam for when the click wrench goes 'click'. Maybe check two readings. Done. As for the 45 ft/lb pooching the sprocket studs, welcome to the club. After way too many students with Suzukis buggering the sprocket studs of various models of Suzi-Qs, I finally told them to use blue Loctite and only go to 35 ft/lbs. The comment earlier about lubing the threads is valid. I usually use nothing more slippery than WD-40 on threads, unless they see a ton of heat or pressure, then I use Anti-Sieze. Engine oil will completely fool your torque wrench as it makes the fasteners too easy to turn. This is why some companies (HD, BMW) use torque angle specs. Basically you take the slack out of the fastener, then you turn the wrench a specified number of degrees. Much more accurate. What little I know I gladly share.
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