Torque Wrenches

Toby_HDi · Post by **Toby_HDi** » 11 Sep 2008, 00:47

As I'm planning on doing a lot more to my car than I used to I'm considering if a torque wrench would be a useful investment.

Does anyone have any advice on what to look for?

Obviously I want one with the largest range possible whilst retaining accuracy.

Any thought's on what drive I should be looking at 1/2? 3/8?

I'm thinking maybe £50 or less. Can I get a decent one for this money? Any recommendations on brands or where to get one?

Is it worthwhile to get one?

Thanks
Toby

Stunned Monkey · Post by **Stunned Monkey** » 11 Sep 2008, 00:58

the Halfords ones are made by the same people who make Snapon ones - or at least, the adjustmant mechanism and gauge thingy is identical, and very easy to use. Halfords stuff is actually very good, in my semi-professional exprerience. Brittool are also good, as are Clarke (Machine Mart). You won't find many things you can't do with a 3' 1/2" drive wrench. Try and get one with a small "click radius" and one that is easily reversible. The halfords ones require the end to be popped off and reversed. The Brittool ones aren't terribly easy to read the setting.

IMO the torque setting doesn't have to be fantastically accurate - often you're measuring a very tight torque, and with stuff like head bolts, it's more important that they're all set the same than the setting be spot on accurate.

Toby_HDi · Post by **Toby_HDi** » 11 Sep 2008, 01:14

Thanks Stunned Monkey

So a 1/2" one. Would buying reducers be a good idea? For the smaller bolts?

With bolts that require low torques, below range of wrench, would you just set the wrench to its lowest setting and then stop before hit the torque?

Are the Halfords ones breakaway?

reblack68 · Post by **reblack68** » 11 Sep 2008, 06:40

Halfords have more than one range of tools. The good stuff is called "Professional".

jeremy · Post by **jeremy** » 11 Sep 2008, 17:31

The very low torque settings quoted for many covers etc are really an indication that they should not be done up very tight. Even if you have the right tool you'll never bother to set it up to do up rocker covers etc. I simply use small spanners and don't pull very hard and try and get them even.

3/8 drive wrenches go a little lower but you've got to assemble all the bits to tighten covers and so tend to rely on experience and a simple spanner.

I have a cheap Clarke 1/2 inch torque wrench which I bought as I suspected my 30 year old one might have seen better days - and while it does what it says - I don't think its very easy to use. My old one is a Norbar which I think is very similar to the Halfords one in that it has a knob on the end and 2 scales visible through 2 windows and is far easier to use.

Bear in mind the size of the thing - if its 3 ft long you've got to have room to swing it!

lolingram · Post by **lolingram** » 15 Sep 2008, 14:34

The very low torque settings quoted for many covers etc are really an indication that they should not be done up very tight. Even if you have the right tool you'll never bother to set it up to do up rocker covers etc. I simply use small spanners and don't pull very hard and try and get them even.

Thing about bolt and stud tightening is that the items concerned should be under correct torsion tension, so that this keeps them from coming loose. When this is not convenient (the 'old' pre-war RR engines were ALWAYs thus), the some form of threadlock has to be employed. The used to be the reason for torque wrenches, but alas, things change.

Just my 4 pennorth.

Kowalski · Post by **Kowalski** » 16 Sep 2008, 21:58

Back in the days of spanners each and every spanner was made a suitable length for the size of nuts it would turn. This was first standardised during WW2 to help ease production and meant that each spanner gave suitable leverage and the average person would be able to tell when a nut or bolt was tight enough.

Today in the era of socket set you're tightening all of the different sizes of nut with the same fixed length of lever. As an example my 1/2" socket set goes from 8mm up to 32mm, obviously I have to pull on the end of my wratchet pretty hard to do up the biggeset bolts where as I can easilly twist off the smaller ones. Obviously common sense does prevail and I don't use my 1/2" set on 8mm nor on 32mm nuts, 1/4" and 3/4" sets are more appropriate for those sizes.

Its the of the socket set that makes the torque wrench a necessity for things that need to be tightened the right amount.

lolingram · Post by **lolingram** » 17 Sep 2008, 08:11

Back in the days of spanners each and every spanner was made a suitable length for the size of nuts it would turn. This was first standardised during WW2 to help ease production and meant that each spanner gave suitable leverage and the average person would be able to tell when a nut or bolt was tight enough.

Today in the era of socket set you're tightening all of the different sizes of nut with the same fixed length of lever. As an example my 1/2" socket set goes from 8mm up to 32mm, obviously I have to pull on the end of my wratchet pretty hard to do up the biggeset bolts where as I can easilly twist off the smaller ones. Obviously common sense does prevail and I don't use my 1/2" set on 8mm nor on 32mm nuts, 1/4" and 3/4" sets are more appropriate for those sizes.

Its the of the socket set that makes the torque wrench a necessity for things that need to be tightened the right amount.

I would add that some folk are just plainly useless at judging tightness... my son in law - an otherwise excellent mechanic and a PhD to boot (rare) - will twist off small bolts until the cows come home regardless of the tooling! I am better at this, and only resort to a torque wrench for head/flywheel tightening. I have spent the last few years as an armourer in my spare(!) time, and rifle bbls are tightened often to about 200 lbs/ft., which keeps one's parameters well spread.