Torque Wrench / Calibration Required?

[luggsey]

Originally Posted by GreenBrick

I tested mine with bottles of water on the handle, at a known distance from the socket. It turned out that for the range of torques used for cylinder head bolts, it was clicking at about 3/4 of the torque it was reading. I made the mistake of using it to undo some head bolts, which I instantly regretted.
Before I put my Jeep back together I am going to buy a new one, as I don't trust it very much now and it was only a cheap halfrauds one anyhoo.

The Halfords ones are Norbar, good ones!

[robsterpaterson]

Originally Posted by GreenBrick

I tested mine with bottles of water on the handle, at a known distance from the socket. It turned out that for the range of torques used for cylinder head bolts, it was clicking at about 3/4 of the torque it was reading. I made the mistake of using it to undo some head bolts, which I instantly regretted.
Before I put my Jeep back together I am going to buy a new one, as I don't trust it very much now and it was only a cheap halfrauds one anyhoo.

Sorry, that's not how they're checked. If you set it to, for instance, 30Nm and then apply 30Nm of force to the correct part of the handle then the wrench won't click (or whatever yours does). It could take 40 or even 50Nm of force to move it due to breakout torque being higher than the running torque. If yours is clicking earlier then it's shagged.

Also, when using a torque wrench - you want the wrench to click somewhere mid-point in the swing/arc that you're using it in. If it clicks as soon as you start the next swing then you're under-torqueing.

[TDIvolvo]

Originally Posted by nickh1978

Hello Forum,

While working on my s60 at the weekend, I managed to sheer one of the M10 bolts that secure the cross-bar to the strut mounts....

I had dialled in the correct Nm setting (35Nm), but the wrench never 'clicked' to indicate the correct torque setting had been reached when tightening the bolt (used several times on wheel nuts and worked flawlessly previously).

I've been reading that a torque wrench needs to be 'wound back' when it is not in-use (which I didn't do) and wondering whether this may be the problem? i.e. its no longer calibrated.

I was planning on dropping into my local garage to see whether they would calibrate it - is this something that a garage would typically do?

For reference, the wrench is a SEALEY AK624B Micrometer Torque Wrench (http://www.sealey.co.uk/PLPageBuilde...roductid=20122)

Cheers, N.

Local council will do it - they will have a calibration and test centre, our local centre charge £51.00 - given the price of your torque wrench - you may be cheaper buying another and using it to roughly calibrate your old one and have two. These are more for the wrenches going into the £100's of pounds and absolute accuracy is needed.


Or find someone with a dial indicator torque wrench like this: https://www.zoro.co.uk/shop/hand-too...xoCZdYQAvD_BwE

I have one sitting here which I use to correctly torque timing belt tensioners - lost of people use the clicking type, as soon as it has clicked it has lost the setting - so they are the wrong tool to use.

[barrybritcher]

the trick is just have 2x or more torque wrenches with overlapping ranges.

I've got a 3/8 one and a 1/2 inch one. set it at say 100nm on both and compare

[harveys]

If you have deep pockets get a Digital one as they self calibrate the load cell on start up.