torque wrenches?

[matt 2LT]

quick question, do torque wrenches generally work in reverse?

as i need to get a new torque wrench to do al the hub nuts on my kitcar, which has 2 left hand, and 2 right hand nuts. and also needs to go up to 229Lbs.

and any recomendatins?

cheers

[Wing Commander]

I have a halfords one for the low torques, and a draper one that goes up to 210. Not quite enough for you, but the next size up is.

I can recommend the draper ones - they have a very solid feel, and are fully reversible by means of a little lever.

http://www.tooled-up.com/Product.asp?PID=17858

Actually, this one seems better value

http://www.tooled-up.com/Product.asp?PID=15628

Edited by Wing Commander on Saturday 21st August 11:29

[maniac0796]

Well, my draper one has a reversible ratcher.

The Sykes Pickavant one has a reversable drive, so basically, you push the drive through the other side, like flipping the wrench round.

[matt 2LT]

cheers, it seems that after 200NM they seem to get very expensive.

im tempted to give this a go: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&am...

i can see its got a lever for changing direction, but will check that it "torques" in both.

[Starfighter]

1 click only - I've had a workshop refit 4 wheels when I came back just in time to see the monkey giving it several clicks and an extra pull for luck!

+1 for Norbar

You cannot use a wrech to "check" applied torque, you need a separate gauge to do this, they are expensive.

[HellDiver]

maniac0796 said:

Well, my draper one has a reversible ratcher.

Same. £22 delivered off Amazon. Bargain.

[Wing Commander]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

So, in theory, his TW could have been running at 150. When you come to check them at 120, you click out without moving the bolts, as you would expect. All you have determined is that the bolts are done up to more than or equal to 120.

[Eggman]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

All that was telling you is that the wheelnuts were at least as tight as the setting on your wrench - if they had neen done up to 240Nm you would have seen the same results, and I guess that might be the reason why a different tool is required. (However, I'm wondering whether one of the bendy torque wrenches might do the job).

[NiceCupOfTea]

i have a couple of halfords professional ones that seem fine. they are reversible.

[Starfighter]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

Also, the wrench is designed to click off at (eg) 120Nm when the bolt is actually moving. The differences in static and dynamic fricking on the threads means that putting the wrench back on can allow it to click of at slightly below the set point. All you know is that the torque is somwhere from slighly below the target to somewhere way above. The wrench is an attribute gauge and cannot do variable measurements.

[aww999]

Is there any simple way of checking the calibration of a torque wrench? I guess at low torques you could rig up a jig with a mass and a lever arm and rotate them, but what about at >200ft lbs? Like the OP, I need a beefy torque wrench to do up the crank pulley bolt on my engine once I have done the cam belt. I don't really want to buy a £300 torque wrench for this one job, but I don't want to trust some cheap chinese thing either with such a vital bolt - too loose and the crank pulley will wobble off over time and wreck the crankshaft, too tight and I could shear the bolt off!

[NiceCupOfTea]

£70 quid for a Halfords Professional one.

Borrow one.

HSS / Hire place?

[MarJay]

A motorcycle magazine regularly tests stuff like Torque wrenches. The Halfords Professional ones came out as 'best buy' because they are extremely accurate and great value for money. They are also reversible.

The Norbar one they tested was about the same accuracy but a bit more expensive.

Watching MotoGP recently, they showed a toolkit on the grid with a drawer open and what appeared to be a Halfords professional torque wrench in there... I've got a feeling that Halfords gets a reputable tool maker to make its tools, and I think its Brittool. So maybe the Halfords Professional torque wrenches are rebranded Brittool ones, and the MotoGP types use Brittool...

[aww999]

I like the Halfords pro stuff, but their biggest torque wrench only goes up to 300Nm or 225 ft lb. I will check the exact figure I need but I don't think that's quite enough for my requirements. Is there any guarantee that one from a hire place would be any good, or within calibration? (Is there any legal requirement for such a tool to be calibrated annually if it is being hired out?)

Halfords torque wrench

http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/...

[Riff Raff]

aww999 said:

I like the Halfords pro stuff, but their biggest torque wrench only goes up to 300Nm or 225 ft lb. I will check the exact figure I need but I don't think that's quite enough for my requirements. Is there any guarantee that one from a hire place would be any good, or within calibration? (Is there any legal requirement for such a tool to be calibrated annually if it is being hired out?)

Halfords torque wrench

http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/...

A fair bit of the stuff that I've hired from my local place has been, err, 'well used'. I doubt very much whether they have the time, the inclination or indeed the facilities to re-test torque wrenches between hires, and you have no guarantee that anyone hiring it before you hasn't been using it as a hammer.

A quick Google shows that prices for wrenches bigger than the biggest Halfords pro are about double. I don't know what the tolerances on the Halfords stuff is, but it's probably more than a couple of percent, so given that the difference between 225 and 229 is only a couple of percent, personally I might be inclined to torque to 225 and then give it an extra tweak. I think I did something similar on the clutch for my Ducati.

[corradoG60]

also, if youve got the choice don't use say a 300-500 lbs torque wrench to torque something to 320 lbs, as according to the calibration guy at work the accuracy drops off massively at the low end of its range so he says idealy you should use one third upwards.

[EDLT]

MarJay said:

A motorcycle magazine regularly tests stuff like Torque wrenches. The Halfords Professional ones came out as 'best buy' because they are extremely accurate and great value for money. They are also reversible.

The Norbar one they tested was about the same accuracy but a bit more expensive.

Watching MotoGP recently, they showed a toolkit on the grid with a drawer open and what appeared to be a Halfords professional torque wrench in there... I've got a feeling that Halfords gets a reputable tool maker to make its tools, and I think its Brittool. So maybe the Halfords Professional torque wrenches are rebranded Brittool ones, and the MotoGP types use Brittool...

I think the torque wrenches are made by Beta, or at least they look similar:

Beta torque wrench
http://www.beta-tools.com/catalog/articles/view/60...lang_en/__catlang_en/__catalog_beta/filters_

Halfords torque wrench:
http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/...

[Tinkkerbell]

The new Halfords professional is apparently made by a British company called Sykes-Pickavant apparently I asked one of the staff today. Pays to buy British sometimes. Life time guarantee even on the moving parts. I think they are telling the truth as the details of each are unmistakably the same but branded with Halfords. I've not had any problems with the professional tools from Halfords. Cheaper than Snap on. If you catch the sale it's half price. Just stay away from any tools from Halfords that aren't the professional ones. Apparently it's quite a skilled technique using these wrenches and maintenance. I'm only a beginner mechanic but any tips would be useful as I'm diving in to the cylinder head soon.