Torque wrench and crows foot

Was just thinking, I used a torque wrench with a crows foot on it to torque down some timing cover bolts, the ones behind the harmonic balancer because a socket would not fit in there and I did not want to trust my 'feel' for tightness while I was leaning over and down to reach the darn things. With the added leverage of the crows foot wrench on the end of the torque wrench would it be higher or lower torque.

It would be more than the torgue setting by a Ounce or two.

It would depend on which direction the opening on the crowsfoot was oriented. If it was opened away from the handle, then it would increase the torque above what was indicated. If toward the handle, then it would decrease. Either way, I wouldn't worry about it much.

If the open end of the crows foot is at 90 degrees to the long axis of the torque wrench, there is no change to the reading on the wrench.

If the crows foot is parallel to the long axis all values should be adjusted DOWN. Reduce the torque you want to read on the wrench from the desired value by multiplying the desired value by "N", where "N" is calculated as follows:

N + "A" divided by "B"

"A" is distance between the center of the torque wrench handle and the center of the point where you would normally attach a socket

"B" is the distance between the center of the torque wrench handle and the center of the opening in the crow's foot where the nut slips in.

In most applications, and with most wrenches, the ratio is real close to one. For example, on my torque wrench, "A" is about 18 inches, and "B" is about 19 inches, so the ratio is comes out to 0.94

For most stuff, as others have pointed out, this adjustment is too small to worry about, as the tolerance on the torque is bigger than this impact.

There ARE some cases, though, where this is worth worrying about, but they are few and far between.