23 replies to this topic

[R1minimagic]

It depends on experience too, i reckon i could get most things to within a few percent just by feel, but i still use a torque wrench on engine stuff and wheel bearings etc (never on wheel nuts as i am very experienced in that area lol!!)

[Jake Didsbury]

Not like garages that use an impact gun for everything they touch and you can never get the wheel nuts off!! Really annoys me (monkeys!)

Yeah some dont give a ****, just slam it back together, the guys I know have been doing it a really long time and are good, but some are terrible and are just out for your money, id like a torque rench but there expensive, and im after an imperial one or one that does both but £££££ ahaha

[tiger99]

All torque wrenches I have ever seen have both imperial and metric graduations. Not that it matters, as even the Haynes manual generally quotes torques in both systems of units, and in any case conversion between them is easy.

I don't propose to give a degree course in engineering here. Suffice it to say that unless you are very, very experienced, and can accurately judge torque by feel, you absolutely must use one. If some torques are not reasonably close to the design values, very bad things, expensive, dangerous, or both, will certainly happen.

[valve bounce]

Not like garages that use an impact gun for everything they touch and you can never get the wheel nuts off!! Really annoys me (monkeys!)

Yeah some dont give a ****, just slam it back together, the guys I know have been doing it a really long time and are good, but some are terrible and are just out for your money, id like a torque rench but there expensive, and im after an imperial one or one that does both but £££££ ahaha

that's rather harsh, not all garages are like that, the one were i work there are 4 people that are like that but the workshop foreman hates it he insists that impact guns are for undoing only and i work the same ways impact gun for loosening, tourque wrench/ratchet/bar/spanner for tightening.

so don't go taring us all with the same brush please

[Jake Didsbury]

Not like garages that use an impact gun for everything they touch and you can never get the wheel nuts off!! Really annoys me (monkeys!)

Yeah some dont give a ****, just slam it back together, the guys I know have been doing it a really long time and are good, but some are terrible and are just out for your money, id like a torque rench but there expensive, and im after an imperial one or one that does both but £££££ ahaha

that's rather harsh, not all garages are like that, the one were i work there are 4 people that are like that but the workshop foreman hates it he insists that impact guns are for undoing only and i work the same ways impact gun for loosening, tourque wrench/ratchet/bar/spanner for tightening.

so don't go taring us all with the same brush please

Thats why the word 'some' was used

and to be honest im not fussed about torque setting my wheel nuts, if it was such a big thing, they wouldn't have made wheel braces, and no ones taring anyone with the same brush, well Im certainly not, im only stating what ive seen in my life, the garage where I get my stuff don always does a good job, most do but theres just the odd few,
also nothing wrong with putting wheel nuts on with impact gun, cant say id do it with other stuff, depends, but snap on do one specially for putting wheels back on, ive seen it done loads of times

Edited by Jake Didsbury, 31 May 2012 - 07:04 PM.

[tiger99]

There ia a very great deal wrong with putting wheel nuts on with an impact wrench. It is a potentially lethal practice. Even steel wheels have fractured around the holes because of that. (Alloy is much more prone to damage.) The steel pressing around the hole is intentionally raised slightly, so the metal is not in contact with the drive flange, to provide some elasticity. Overtighten the nuts, and the metal is forced back against the flange, overstressing the area around the raised part, which will suffer fatigue fracture fairly soon. The wheel then comes off, and may cause a very serious accident.

Just as bad, the studs may be strained well into their fatigue region, and will fail sooner or later, without warning.

The standard wheel brace supplied with a car is designed so that a person of average stature will be able to adequately, but not excessively, tighten teh nuts.

[Jake Didsbury]

Well ive seen it done all my life and not just in one place, never ever ever seen one fail, aslong is its not any tighter than what you would do with a wheel brace its fine, im not implying you absolutley hammer it on, why do they sell wheel nut runners?

[valve bounce]

as i said above, impact guns are for removing nuts/bolts only

[tiger99]

You are totally correct, and indeed they are EXTREMELY USEFUL for removing certain things like hub nuts and crankshaft bolts, and a slight time saver for more mundane stuff.

Sadly, not everyone will be convinced, including the garage mechanics who regularly misuse them....