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#1
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torque wrench calibration
I bought a 3/8's great neck torgue wrench at autozone for $19.99. It
has a range from 120 to 960 Inch-pounds, and is also calibrated in Meter-kilograms. It is a very gentle click torque wrench. I had never used a torque wrench before, and thought surely it was not accurate. I barely pulled on it and it clicked at 120 inch pounds. So, I put the socket head in a vise, like someone on here suggested, only with the handle parallel to the floor, and on it's side, the socket head facing horizonatally. I then tied weights around a thin rope and hung it over the handle, at precisly 9 inches from the Socket head. I multiplied the inches of the leverage by the number of pounds to get the inch-pounds. Surprisely, despite all the dire warnings agains unscrewing the grip, not oiling it, etc, etc, (that I had already violated before reading all the way through the instruction booklet.), it was remarkable accurate. I didn't realize I was that strong, I never realized what 30 foot pounds of torgue felt like, boy, I had been screwing those nuts and bolts on WAYYY too tight. I figure 20 bucks for the torque wrench will pay off in better mileage after adjusting the axle spindle bolts to the suggested torque. The torque wrench is probably +/- 10% accuracy, but I can deal with it being off 3 foot pounds on a 30 lb torque nut, i can't deal with the $130 dollars for the +/- 2% accurancy. I wish you could re-calibrate it yourself, though, somehow. Also, when calibrating, it is not necessary to change the weights so much, just load up a 50 lbs and move it from 9 inches, to 8 inches, to 7 inches, etc, to increase/decrease the Inch-pounds. by moving the rope fractions of inches til it clicked, i was able to find the +/- accuracy fairly scientificly. If you could recalibrate the thing yourself, you'd be crazy not to own one for $20 dollars. |
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#2
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It's kind of interesting how they calibrated it, it clicks at about
135 in-pounds at the 120 Inch pound setting(+5%), while it clicks at about 460 inch pounds at the 480 inch pound setting (-5%). That seems like an intelligent way to do it, a little too tight on the light torqued nuts, a little too light on the heavily torqued nuts. |
#3
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> wrote in message ups.com... > It's kind of interesting how they calibrated it, it clicks at about > 135 in-pounds at the 120 Inch pound setting(+5%), while it clicks at > about 460 inch pounds at the 480 inch pound setting (-5%). > > That seems like an intelligent way to do it, a little too tight on > the light torqued nuts, a little too light on the heavily torqued nuts. > That isn't deliberate, it is because a spring is non-linear in force throughout it's travel range. My only problem with click-torque wrenches is that sometimes you get a fastner that reaches the required torque, then if you stop pulling on it, after the fastner settles a few seconds, bit, it's torque goes down. This is very obvious with a beam-type torque wrench. Ted |
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#5
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MisterSkippy wrote:
> Good post. Not enough of us use a torque wrench. In the old days of > all cast iron it was always "good and tight and a bit more". Now, with > all the aluminum, it is "too loose, torqued to spec, stripped". > > And a reminder... especially if you have aluminum wheels... recheck the torque on those lugnuts a day or two after rotating or any time you've had the wheels off. Last week was the second time in 5 years my truck has decided to try shedding the wheels. My truck has two modes for removing lugnuts - you need to be the Hulk to get them off or they just come off by themselves... and yes, I use a torque wrench. I forgot to check them a second time a couple of days later and one wheel almost came off on me. When I rechecked them a couple of lugs were only finger tight... Ray |
#6
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On Mon, 20 Dec 2004 02:15:41 GMT, Ray > wrote:
>MisterSkippy wrote: >> Good post. Not enough of us use a torque wrench. In the old days of >> all cast iron it was always "good and tight and a bit more". Now, with >> all the aluminum, it is "too loose, torqued to spec, stripped". >> >> > >And a reminder... especially if you have aluminum wheels... recheck the >torque on those lugnuts a day or two after rotating or any time you've >had the wheels off. I have aluminum alloy wheels also, and this is a notorious problem. >Last week was the second time in 5 years my truck has decided to try >shedding the wheels. My truck has two modes for removing lugnuts - you >need to be the Hulk to get them off or they just come off by >themselves... and yes, I use a torque wrench. I forgot to check them a >second time a couple of days later and one wheel almost came off on me. >When I rechecked them a couple of lugs were only finger tight... That's the way they were when I bought the car from the dealership! Every so often, I walk around the car with a torque wrench and make sure they're at 80 pound/feet, which is what the dealer told me to set them to. The tech at the dealership said they set =all= wheel nuts on ford/Lincoln/mercury to 80 pound/feet, regardless of make/model. I thought that was *curious,* but that's what I do now, since having broken off a lug whilst torquing it to 100 pound/feet. Lg >Ray |
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Lawrence Glickman wrote:
> > That's the way they were when I bought the car from the dealership! > > Every so often, I walk around the car with a torque wrench and make > sure they're at 80 pound/feet, which is what the dealer told me to set > them to. The tech at the dealership said they set =all= wheel nuts on > ford/Lincoln/mercury to 80 pound/feet, regardless of make/model. > > I thought that was *curious,* but that's what I do now, since having > broken off a lug whilst torquing it to 100 pound/feet. > > Lg > > > >>Ray > 80 ft-lbs is a little low. The shop manual for my '92 Grand Marquis says 85-104 Lb-ft and the manual for my '96 Mark VIII says 85-105 Lb-ft. I ususually set them around 95-100 lb-ft. Stan K. |
#8
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Lawrence Glickman wrote:
> > Every so often, I walk around the car with a torque wrench and make > sure they're at 80 pound/feet, which is what the dealer told me to set > them to. The tech at the dealership said they set =all= wheel nuts on > ford/Lincoln/mercury to 80 pound/feet, regardless of make/model. > > I thought that was *curious,* but that's what I do now, since having > broken off a lug whilst torquing it to 100 pound/feet. > > Lg My truck is a GM and it's 100. All three GM's I own with aluminum wheels use 100. The wife's Beretta has never done that in 7 years... Ray |
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