Best options for under sized Torque Wrench?

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate
links, including eBay, Amazon, Skimlinks, and others.

If you weren't on the other side of the country I'd let you borrow my snap on 100-600. I say find a friend that works on Diesel Rigs or Airplanes. I do the latter.

Fat-fingered on my iPhone using IH8MUD

Heavy equipment mechanics (and airplane mechanics apparently) are going to be the only ones with the "proper" torque wrench in their tool boxes, well commonly anyways. I have over $1k in torque wrenches and none of them go to 300 ft/lbs :doh:
 
I used a snap on digital 1/2" torque wrench, it goes to 250 it clicked, then 1/8th turn past and no issues after a year a d a half and 10k miles
 
image-3746084920.jpg

Find one like this. Will handle that torque and you can do it alone.

Fat-fingered on my iPhone using IH8MUD

image-1524364652.jpg


image-3746084920.jpg
 
I rented a snap-on 600 ft-lb torque wrench from a local U-haul & tool rental place for $80 when I put my supercharger on. They had set the wrench up so it was unidirectional - would only tighten. Prevents knuckleheads from using it as a breaker bar I guess.

It was a satisfying $80 click-clunk.

Diesel mechanics use torque multipliers to get into the thousands of foot-pounds - those are expensive little items too though.

:meh:
 
The easiest solution is probably 6ft strong iron pipe to use as a cheater + spring scale rated to measure out to at least 50#.

This is basically what we did when I worked in a VW shop to tighten the flywheel bolt. You put a mark on the breaker bar at the lenght that when you stepped on the bar it would give 300 ft pounds. For my scrawney 150 pounds (at the time), it would be 2 ft to give 300 ft pounds. This was not my idea but the shop manager's and I never saw any of them come back with a loose flywheel. It isn't rocket science or even aircraft mechanics. It is just simple arithmetic.
 
Just click it to 250# and then mark the bolt and give it another 1/8 turn and call it a day.
 
$0.02 worth

there's only 1 best way, could be many good enough.

1 method of many would be to use your higher quality, more accurate but lower range unit at a value @ 2/3 or less of full scale deflection to set a torque level.
Then use the lower quality, wider range device to measure it's accuracy. now you can extrapolate a correction value.
You can get a better correction value if you repeat at several values, interpolated correction is obviously more accurate, and to some extent you could derive a sense of linear error.

I'm not an expert, but the differences between a of batch of new and unused high quality torque wrenches is at the high end of their stated error range, from top of the line snap on (I always preferred belzer) and proto with the tightest margins and it get's likely worse as you go down grade, and that's for new. Use, age, especially storage all degrade the accuracy. Also note that the calibration frequency for most of these tools is 1 year from manufacture, not date of first use. Mil spec failure rate for the high quality tools was always high, >30%, on 1st. yr. So if it's ever been dropped, pried with, got wet, got dirty or been stored improperly, all bet's are off. And don't forget that accuracy is stated for conditions, 60% humidity, 75 deg. F, in the shade!

So, you probably can't get to Mr. T's stated torque spec precisely, best you can do is limit the compromises, YMMV
 
That's how I did it. The +/_ on the HF is a little eery to think about for as much error as it can introduce though.

I bought the HF wrench today. Goes to 300#. But I'm concerned about the precision of the HF tool (obvious reasons, its HF, afterall)

Do you think it is accurate? If so, then i click out 300 and "feel" for
4 more ft-lbs. Close enough and cigars too?
 
I also got the harbor freight wrench. I had a calibration shop test it. Mine was on the high end, 300# on the wrench came out to 310 on their test rig which was perfect. I think it was about $40 to get it tested.

A little pricey to spend $40 testing an $80 wrench but cheaper than buying one that goes to 600ft lb. and I was confident on the torque number when I was done with the job.
 
There have been a lot of recent tests on HF torque wrenches, they all have come back very good. As said before, probably a better bet than a rental that has been abused for years
 
We know what can happen if it's too loose, are there any negative consequences that could arrive from having is a little too tight?
 
There have been a lot of recent tests on HF torque wrenches, they all have come back very good. As said before, probably a better bet than a rental that has been abused for years

Saw a write up on hf torque wrenches in Fourwheeler. Came back with good reviews
 
We know what can happen if it's too loose, are there any negative consequences that could arrive from having is a little too tight?

I was wondering the same....
 
I acquired a 6 foot cheater pipe today.

Question: Is there room, with the front left tire either on or off, to get the pipe in on the main crank bolt and protrude from the fender well, such that it can be properly loaded up?
 
I acquired a 6 foot cheater pipe today.

Question: Is there room, with the front left tire either on or off, to get the pipe in on the main crank bolt and protrude from the fender well, such that it can be properly loaded up?

If you're expecting to lay that pipe horizontal so you stand on it, probably not. When I was suggesting the pipe and spring scale, it was so you could have the pipe arranged so that it's (nearly) vertical, and use the spring scale to pull the free end of the pipe - perpendicular to the pipe, of course - until it reads 50lbs.
 
If you're expecting to lay that pipe horizontal so you stand on it, probably not. When I was suggesting the pipe and spring scale, it was so you could have the pipe arranged so that it's (nearly) vertical, and use the spring scale to pull the free end of the pipe - perpendicular to the pipe, of course - until it reads 50lbs.


Ok - I was hoping to somehow get it sticking out horizontally and either standing on it or add set number of pounds to it.,,Oh well
 
I acquired a 6 foot cheater pipe today.

Question: Is there room, with the front left tire either on or off, to get the pipe in on the main crank bolt and protrude from the fender well, such that it can be properly loaded up?

Why not go through the engine bay, diagonal right across the top of the coolant overflow? That's how I went. My cheater wasn't six feet, but damn near five, and that's how I did it. Big cheater is where it's at. You feel like you can rip the whole engine out of there with just a little force. The crank bolt won't have a chance.
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top Bottom