Just thought i'd share my week's experiences with the list here so that nobody else falls in the same hole I did.
I bought a Kingchrome brand torque wrench so that I could do some engine building at home. It wasn't cheap, they are $120 & is packed in a long blue plastic box with a ticket inside saying "This thingy was calibrated by Ng and is within tolerances, blah blah blah" Normally you would buy such an expensive tool so that you could tighten things with some degree of precision. So I am using this wretched wrench to do up my flywheel bolts, and as I am getting up to the correct torque, I feel each bolt going "doughy" or Plastic. Meaning it is over-torqued. I undid them quick smart and threw them all aside. Fair enough I say... I've used the bolts more than once, maybe they're just tired. So I go to Ni$$an and buy a new set of 8, at $15 a piece.... begin torque sequence again, the first 3 bolts start going "doughy" again, and the 4th one snaps. Something is up. So go back to Ni$$an again and order 4 new bolts. But I decide to check my wrench against another one that I know is calibrated and expensive. So I mortgaged my kneecaps with a local mechanic, & set up a test at home. I did up a bolt to 20 ft/lb with my wrench. and I use the good wrench to check it against. To the initiated, 20 ft/lb is about as tight as you can get a bolt using your fingers, maybe nip it up with a spanner... Not very tight. 60 ft/lb is about as tight as you can get using an average 1/2" ratchet. As it turns out, my 20 ft/lb was equivalent to 50 ft/lb on the calibrated torque wrench. That is a LONG way off the mark & I am really pissed off because I have wasted $180 on bolts today, using a $120 tool. I could've bought a $200 tool (or borrowed a $800 one), done the job right in the first place. Kingchrome torque wrenchs are crap. Do not buy them! If you own one, chuck it in the bin or sell it on ebay... ;) Anybody else had an experience like this??? --membersozdat------------------------------------------------------- OZDAT Mailing List Please Note:- Send (un)subscribe requests to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Send submissions to [EMAIL PROTECTED] No unauthorised redistribution of this email http://www.ozdat.com/ozdatonline/index.htm http://www.ozdat.com/ozdatonline/listindex.html http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------
