Kindo OT: buying a torque wrench

For obvious reasons for mah jeep. What brand do you guys recommend?? I was just gonna go to Sears and pick up a 5-80 ft. lb. Craftsman wrench, but i figured i'd get some opinions first......thanks.

Husky (I think is what Home Depot sells.. or is it Lowes?). Life time warranty. You break it or think it is out of calibration, return it and get a new one.

I'd say spend a little money to do it right - using turning torque to measure bolt preload is already inaccurate - no sense in using an inaccurate tool to measure an inaccurate process.

Whe you are concerned with installation torque, what you are actually measuring is tensile stress on the bolt when installed. The BEST way to do this is by directly measuring the installed length of the bolt vice the free length (there is a mathematical formula for doing this,) but that isn't always practical.

I think you'll also find you'll need at least three torque wrenches once you get started - a pound-inch wrench for the light stuff (I usually use this for valve cover gaskets and oil sump gaskets - it's that important,) a middlin' pound-foot wrench for general use (engine stuff, mainly,) and a larger pound-foot wrench for larger bolts (suspension and such.)

If you're getting this mainly for engine work, a 3/8" drive pound-foot wrench and a 3/8" or 1/4" drive pound-inch wrench should serve you well. I'd go with at least Craftsman - Mac, Matco, or Snap-On being preferred. You could also check with MRO suppliers (like MSC Direct) or gunsmithing suppliers (like Brownell's) if you'd like to price-shop - most of the stuff they carry HAS to be good, and it's a less-specialised market (meaning they won't charge as much - kinda like the difference between buying a good bicycle innertube at a general sporting goods store and buying the exact same tube at a bike shop, or buying GMC parts vice Chevvy parts at the dealership...)

5-90

Yeah, this'll be mainly for engine work.........

What about the "Great Neck" brand they sell at AZ? lol, it looked decent for $25..........

I TELL YOU THREE TIMES I TELL YOU THREE TIMES I TELL YOU THREE TIMES - any tool that you are going to use for any sort of precision measurement (micrometers, calipers, torque wrenches, scales, balanced, interferometers, whatever) beyond what you'd expect to do with woodworking, you don't want to do on the cheap. If you can't afford a good one now, wait until you can.

Even a quality "deflection" style torque wrench is better than a cheap "micrometer" or "click" type - the accuracy of the tool is really important here. I cannot and will not bring myself to using cheap $4!7 when it comes to engine measurements - it's not worth it.

Here are some torque wrench brands that I've used well...

Craftsman
Proto (used to make Craftsman stuff, until Sears moved it offshore)
S&K Tools
Vulcan (used to be able to get these from Post-Tool - don't know if you can still find them. I've got a Vulcan wrench that hasn't lost calibration in the last eleven years.)
Armstrong (MSC Direct carries these.)
Stanley (quite acceptable, believe it or not.)
K-D Tools

Brands that suck:
Anything carried by a large-chain automotive store - typically collectively referred to as "Snap-Off Tools."


Borderline:
Husky (Home Depot house brand. I don't have enough experience with them to rate them effectively.)

While you're shopping around, check out the "Books and Recommended Reading" page on my website for a listing of catalogues no well-organised shop should be without. I'll be adding to it, but you should already be able to find nearly anything you need from what I've put up so far...

One more time - IT ISN'T WORTH IT TO USE CHEAP "PRECISION" TOOLS!

5-90

Fred85 said:

Yeah, this'll be mainly for engine work.........

What about the "Great Neck" brand they sell at AZ? lol, it looked decent for $25..........

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I have a torque tester at work and my Great Neck checks out just fine. Like 5-50 says though stay away from the click type.

wow, man, i was kidding about the Great Neck.........no way in hell i would trust a $25 torque wrench......lol

thanks for the help though

langer1 said:

I have a torque tester at work and my Great Neck checks out just fine. Like 5-50 says though stay away from the click type.

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There's absolutely nothing wrong with the click type - my point was that Mark-1 Mod-0 tech from a reputable maker is better than all the fruit from someone who does consistently shonky work. All four of my torque wrenches are "clickers" - and even if they were "beam" wrenches I'd have them checked every other year.

Sorry if I sounded a little strong, but you have no idea how much work I've had to redo (or scrap!) because someone insisted upon getting cheap tools. It's a real sore spot for me - I'd sooner make my money by doing something useful, rather than by correcting someone else's mistakes. I've spent far too much of my life cleaning up after other people...

5-90

Fred85 said:

I was just gonna go to Sears and pick up a 5-80 ft. lb. Craftsman wrench, but i figured i'd get some opinions first......thanks.

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5 - 80 foot-pounds?

That's a toy. For engine work you need a wrench that will read up to 150 foot-pounds. To replace a pinion seal, you want one that reads to 250 foot-pounds. I have a couple that go to 150 and they're adequate for engines, but I'm really kicking myself for not getting at least one that's good for up to 250 foot-pounds.

My impact goes to 250 ft lbs. Torque wrenches are overrated anyway.

i've read that t. wrenches start to get kinda innacurate towards both ends of their torque ranges

i.e. if i had a 20-150 ft. lb. wrench i wouldn't want to use it to torque something to 26 ft lbs. or so

Is there any truth to this? or does it kinda depend on the brand?

Dunno - 5-80 pound-feet is adequate for most engine work on the XJ (main bolts go right to the edge, and don't think about cylinder heads) and won't do at all for suspension, but it will work well for general work. You'd probably get more use out of a pound-inch wrench at that rate.

The best way to do the job is to look up all the torque values you're likely to be dealing with, and buy a set of wrenches that put those values as close to the middle of their ranges as possible. Let's see...

The pound-inch wrench (that you'll use for picky gaskets) doesn't give you a lot of room - but you're not straining it much, so that's largely moot. You just want an accurate torque so you don't crush gaskets there. For the rest...

Cylinder Head Bolts - 100 (#11)/110 (the rest) pound-feet
Main Bearing Caps - 80 pound-feet
Connecting Rod caps - 35 pound-feet
Harmonic Damper/Crankshaft Nose Bolt - 80 pound-feet
Flywheel Retainer Bolts - 100 pound-feet
Combination Manifold Bolts - 25 pound-feet
Camshaft Gear Retaining Bolt - 80 pound-feet
Rocker Arm Pivot Bolt - 19 pound-feet (no lash adjustment)
Water Pump Mounting - 18 pound-feet
Oil Sump Bolts - 80 pound-inches (1/4")/30 pound-feet (5/16")
Torque Converter Retaining - 28 pound-feet
Clutch Retaining - 40 pound-feet
Water Outlet Retaining - 30 pound-feet (not critical in my experience.)
TIming Chain Cover - 62 pound-inches
Valve Cover - 55 pound-inches
Spark Plug Installation - 28 pound-feet
Exhaust Collector Nuts - 23 pound-feet

Take all those and do what I didn't do yet - figure out where the most of your torque wrench use will be, and try to put those figures in the middle of the ranges of the wrenches you buy. Yes, you'll need several. Yes, your work will be better as a result. Trust me, I've been doing this for years...

5-90

Talyn said:

Husky (I think is what Home Depot sells.. or is it Lowes?). Life time warranty. You break it or think it is out of calibration, return it and get a new one.

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Interesting. I see that it's a lifetime warranty, but I'd be (pleasantly) surprised if it covered calibration. Have to stop in to the local Home Despot and check this out.

Sears Craftsman torque wrenches very specifically only have a 90 day warranty and do *NOT* cover calibration.

When I was looking at torque wrenchs I was told to stay away from the Sear's click type wrenchs unless you went to their professional tools. I also heard to stay away from ones with plastic windows too.

I have 3 torque wrenches and I use them all. A beam type from Sears (its about 30 years old) measures like to 400 inch pounds. A Husky 3.8" drive 20-100 Ft. lbs. And a 1/2" Husky 50-too Ft. lbs.

ChiXJeff said:

Interesting. I see that it's a lifetime warranty, but I'd be (pleasantly) surprised if it covered calibration. Have to stop in to the local Home Despot and check this out.

Sears Craftsman torque wrenches very specifically only have a 90 day warranty and do *NOT* cover calibration.

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Actually, it does. I had to return one because I thought it was mis calibrated (It wasn't.. I just had a lapse in reasoning ability at the time) and they exchanged it for me.

My point is if your going to by a torque wrench to rebuild your engine the a $25.00 wrench will do just fine. In testing torque wrenches for our quality control department I have never found a torque bar type wrench to go bad.

If you want to spend lots of money on something your going to use a couple of times then go for it by all means. The ratachet type that clicks do lose calibration, at least get the one with a dial on it for $150.00. But the $25.00 wrench will be well within the tolerances given in any chart.

Well, I originally got a husky torque wrench and paid about $70 or so for it. Than someone told me that the Harbor Freight unit is suprisingly good and accurate so I picked a pair of those (one that's inch pount and one that goes up to 150 foot pounds). I've used them frequently and I compare them against my husky one every so often and they seem all to be in synch with each other. If you're patient the one that goes up to 150ftlbs goes on sale for $9.99.
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/Displayitem.taf?itemnumber=239
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/Displayitem.taf?itemnumber=807
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/Displayitem.taf?itemnumber=2696
(I got the first one and the third one)

this spring, sears took a bum unit i had bought a month earlier from me on return, not warranty, only after i went home and dug up the receipt. seems anything more complex than a ratchet is no longer has a lifetime warranty.

I picked up one of the $35 ones from the parts store, 1/2" and it's BIG, it's a click type. I keep it under my back seat, along with a 1/2" breaker bar, 3" extension and socket for doing lug nuts and thats about it. For better work I have a couple of 15 year old sears, two 3/8" one is inch pounds the other is foot pounds and a 1/2" ft/lb one. All three are in cases. The big thing to remember is to let the pressure off as soon as you are done using it. Putting it away with it set to 100ft/lbs or whatever will ruin it.

Check out some garage sales, sometimes you can run into some nice stuff for really cheap.

old_man said:

My impact goes to 250 ft lbs. Torque wrenches are overrated anyway.

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my hero! :worship: