torque wrenches

[wilcoy02]

I am in the market to buy a Torque Wrench. The Honda manual gives me any torques from 9 ft. lbs to 70. I would like to put my bike back together correctly.

What is a good wrench to buy? And where to buy it at? I see prices from $30.00 to the hundreds. I would like to get a good wrench for several years of service but it does not need to be gold plated.

Thank You for any suggestions.

 

[dan filipi]

I'd go with craftsman for their lifetime warranty and stay away from Harbor Freight.

 

[toytender01]

+1

 

[Steve83]

+2! I've had my Craftsman 3/8" drive click wrench for 15 years. It's good from 5 to 80 Ft.Lbs. I recently had it tested for accuracy, and it's within 2 Lbs. at the high end. No complaints here!

 

[joedrum]

hmmmm what bike we talking wes ?

 

[Ansimp]

Steve83 » Wed Jan 20, 2016 3:21 pm[/url]":3kuxwxi3]
+2! I've had my Craftsman 3/8" drive click wrench for 15 years. It's good from 5 to 80 Ft.Lbs. I recently had it tested for accuracy, and it's within 2 Lbs. at the high end. No complaints here!

Nice :good: :builder:

 

[wilcoy02]

98 valk- Joe.

I have the front tire off for replacement and The brake caliber is rubbing the rivots on the rotor. I have no clearance of the right side. The tire and axle goes on differently than the 1100. So I am hoping a torque wrench will align the rotors up with the calibers.

I had a Harbor Freight torque but I always thought it was junk and threw it away.

Now I want to get a good wrench

 

[bronko37]

I would get both a foot lbs. wrench and an inch pounds wrench. Smaller bolts will be given in inch pounds and I just don't trust my 3/8" drive foot lbs wrench for a little 6mm bolt. And my foot lbs. wrench is nearly gold plated (was a gift tho). Anything less than about 10ft lbs should prolly be done with an inch lbs wrench, IMHO

 

[slabghost]

Break away style torque wrenches need reset to zero after each use or tend to err later. Also the click or break away can easily be missed if the user is distracted or hurried. I've been using the old beam style torque wrench for over 30 years and never an issue. Other than it is occasionally hard to read.

 

[Terry]

I too am a stickler for factory specs and adhere to Honda service manual recommended torque values.
I haven't always been and used to majorly overtighten everything and broke plenty of fasteners.
After I learned about bolt stretch and considered other factors including age and evenly distributed pressures for sealing etc.I do consider it important.
I use several depending on situation: A Craftsman clicker for heavy work.
An cheap old style gauged Craftsman.


I also learned a trick for that light duty inch lb stuff that works great:

A good accurate handheld fish scale, convert inch lbs and the digital handheld fish scale is great.

They come with a built in hook to attach into the closed end wrenches or around ratchet handles.

 

[bronko37]

That is one neat shade tree trick right there Terry.

 

[ianstaley]

Hi from across the water over here we have three types of wrench, Lbs that is our old system or another name was Imperial, the next was in Kilograms , now we have Nw or newton meters. pain in the butt, everything on old bikes IE English/American was always in Lbs or rather Foot Lbs. So I have three modern wrenches, one that is a small wrench (I ues that for my gun stuff) small bolts or nuts that are delicate The other two just get bigger.

Personal choice get the most expensive with a great name that you can afford. I have used all my life either More & Wright or Starret, great American name that one. But these sort of tools have to be dead on, so like has been said Harbour Freight is a no no, get the best and don't believe all you read about snap on tools either, they rely on past achievements, some stuff okay, but they are way over priced and much isn't made in the states any more either.

So it comes down to how deep are your pockets. I think I paid about £60 for my smallest one, the biggest I have is a half inch connector I paid about £80 the in-between some where around that price too. But I bought mine starting with a 3/8th s square drive first. Then I went for the small one then the biggest. So but I bought mine over a 4 month period. Of course you can go the real pro route and get a Facom wrench the prices their go from about £140 up to over £400.00

Not much help but gives yo maybe an idea of what to buy. What I would say is that mine would be okay for me as they will out live me. If I had to make my living then Facom every time. :moped:

 

[bronko37]

Just make your own torque wrench, like Ichibon Moto does.... :smilie_happy:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdVR6T0cxXg

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdVR6T0cxXg[/video]

 

[dan filipi]

bronko37 » 18 minutes ago[/url]":u7yf7sro]
Just make your own torque wrench, like Ichibon Moto does.... :smilie_happy:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdVR6T0cxXg

:smilie_happy: Sheesh

 

[joedrum]

i hardly ever use them ...i use my hands ...it has a brain and touch and experience to know what i need to tighten too ....smart hands beat any wrench and also the numbers game of the people who write the torque numbers ....to me the only kind of torque wrench is the old bending handle and strait bar ..mine was very old ...nothing made since comes close to being as good to me ...and i dont even use it till close to end of doing it by hand just to check bar flex on the bolts ....

 

[ianstaley]

dan filipi » Thu Jan 21, 2016 3:02 pm[/url]":29r71xsz]

bronko37 » 18 minutes ago[/url]":29r71xsz]
Just make your own torque wrench, like Ichibon Moto does.... :smilie_happy:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdVR6T0cxXg

:smilie_happy: Sheesh

No wonder you say sheesh. if you really look at his video I think it is great except for the errors that are done so obvious that you don't see them, drilling holes with the hand drill going backwards without a clamp, titanium rod ? try the hot glue method, and of course tightening a nut the wrong way unless on his specific bike those nuts and bolts are left hand threads. So now comes the question am I taking the bait here. I think so. :doh: :doh: :doh: :hihihi:

But on a more serious note you can make a lets say an improvised engineers torque wrench.

https://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/torqu ... _1909.html

 

[bronko37]

You are falling for it big time Ian. All his videos are like that. There is footage of him cutting 1" diameter rod with his little Swiss army knife scissors. Funny stuff, its all parody.

 

[ianstaley]

:head bang: Yeah I thought so, bunch off adorable loonies on here, yet again I have bitten, just like a trout, how ever, if you look at that site I gave it is full of interesting stuff, never know when you might need it.
:hi: :hihihi:

 

[brianinpa]

I like the German torque - Goot-en-tight.

Actually, I have a Harbor Freight foot pound clicker torque wrench and it works fine for me at half the price.

Something to consider that may be overlooked - if you have a Ft./lb. torque wrench and are only provided an In./lb. specification, divide the In./lb. specification by 12 to obtain a Ft./lb. specification. Likewise, if you have an In./lb. torque wrench and are provided a Ft./lb. specification, multiply by 12 to get a Ft./lb. specification.

 

[wilcoy02]

Joe,

I could do that with my 1100.
This valk - when I changed the front tire the caliber now hits the rivets of the rotor. There are only 5 bolts to put the tire and axle back on. I have tried several variations of hand tighten but to no avail. So now I am going to torque the bolts in the correct order, and the specified torque. I hope this corrects the hitting of the rivets on the rotor. The rotors were not removed from the wheel when installing new tire.