impact guns to >200 ft lbs

[gixermark]

Hi Guys,

My draper impact gun i used this year was fine for the 4 stud wheels on my old car and is spec'd at ~130nm.. however with centre lock wheels on the prosport i need 200ft lb and i see there are a few re chargable impact guns out there claiming to be ~325nm which is enough

has anyone used any particular brands that car say for sure they work ok ?? i don't want to buy another gun and not be up to the job.. ebay has cheapo's at £60 that must be rubbish - but there are 24V sealey ones at buy it now for £100 which seems a bargain (retail £349) and claims to be 325ft lb ! too good to be true ???

I was thinking about removing the air jacks from the car to save weight too - but i reckon the tenth a lap or so that could save is a long way from making a difference while i get into the car - so may be worth sorting an air bottle - again any advice on what spec, do old dive bottles do etc etc ?? i coudl potentially use this to 'power' an air gun for teh wheels then too.....

Mark.

[NASA racer]

If you get a nitrogen tank to run the air jacks, that will have enough pressure to easily run an impact wrench that can take the wheel nuts off. The impact wrenche torque spec isn't as important as how much pressure you put through it

[chrissimp]

We have got a 18v DeWalt cordless torque driver which easily undoes the wheel nuts on our SR3. It is also 1/2" drive, so matches the Radical supplied wheel nut socket. Apologies for not remembering the DeWalt model no, but I can't go out to the workshop to look as I have a broken leg at the moment (plaster comes off on Christmas Eve). Incidently, I couldn't undo the wheel nuts manually when torqued to 200 ft lbs, even with a metre bar. I think price was £299.00, but probably cheaper now.

If you remove the air jacks, won't you have trouble getting a jack under the front when at minimum ride height?

Chris

[gixermark]

cheers guys - yes Pete would consider a tank if they are reasonably cheap

Chris - out of interest does your impact gun take the nuts off when teh wheels/nuts are hot ???

the adapter i have from radical is 3/4" not a big deal though with an adapter..

[nick997]

gixermark said:

Hi Guys,

I was thinking about removing the air jacks from the car to save weight too - but i reckon the tenth a lap or so that could save is a long way from making a difference while i get into the car - so may be worth sorting an air bottle - again any advice on what spec, do old dive bottles do etc etc ?? i coudl potentially use this to 'power' an air gun for teh wheels then too.....

Mark.

Have a word with Roger (www.brom.me.uk), he'll tell you what you need or look at his early posts on the blue SR4 and it might tell you what you need. There's a contact link on the website.

Nick

[NASA racer]

I found the cost of the bottle, regulator. 50' of hose and a cart to be around $600 USD with nitrogen fills being about $20. The upside is I use nitrogen in the tires and between the air jacks and two sets of tires, a fill will EASILY do an entire weekend while also leaving some air for using the impact wrench.

The only tanks I found that could hold the 350lbs of pressure required by the air jacks were nitrogen bottles from welding shops. You should also be able to "rent" a bottle and do exchanges but I wanted my own bottle.

Be careful with the bottle though, I got a hernia lifting the bottle onto my trailer (no, really, a real one that had to have surgery to fix).

[chrissimp]

Chris - out of interest does your impact gun take the nuts off when teh wheels/nuts are hot ???


No, I haven't tried it yet when wheels are hot but it does the job so easily on cold wheels that I am confident that it will cope with hot wheels - but time will tell. It is normally a "dry" day or a "wet" day so wheel changing is done before the car takes to the track. However, I appreciate that the wheels could be changed when hot due to a sudden change in the weather.

Chris