I need an inch-pound torque wrench, so I'm looking for feedback on units from any of the big-box stores and of course HF. Friggin' BMW and their friggin' aluminum bolts.
I need an inch-pound torque wrench, so I'm looking for feedback on units from any of the big-box stores and of course HF. Friggin' BMW and their friggin' aluminum bolts.
Too scared to buy a cheap one. It's too critical. I bought this and it's been a champ.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000KL4HZ8/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&th=1
It's been perfect for little bitty important stuff like the recent valvebody on the van transmission.
I have their 1/4"drive. I never sent it out for calibration or anything even though it says to and includes a card with shipping instructions. It doesn't work. No matter what I set the torque to it just spins and spins.
My buddy has the half inch, and it works flawlessly. We've compared it against I think craftsman and I know snap on and got the same readings.
It's one of those tools that you can get a good one, but it may take a few tries.
I have heard they're updating the torque wrenches soon, higher price higher quality like they've been doing with everything else, but no idea when they're going to start the roll out.
The Tekton wrenches from Amazon aren't terribly expensive and they're well liked for being well built and accurate. I've got 3 different sizes of them, all work well.
Ive been using the 1/2" harbor freight. Mostly for wheels No complaints. Other it pulling one of the press in rocker studs out of a small block chevy. Fairly certain that was my fault.
I got my inch-pound wrench (for the same BMW aluminum bolts) from, of all places, Sears. They had some ridiculous coupon for the top-end digital unit that made it like 40% of list price; the guy at the store thought I was nuts until I showed it to him online (store prices did not reflect the coupon). Sears is so screwed up these days it may be worth checking for a similar deal. The wrench itself seems pretty good, and with the digital scale, very precise (which is good, because I really don't want to snap off one of those damn aluminum bolts...).
Bought one, it didn't click when I used it (despite testing it on the bench to ensure it clicked) to finish up a HPFP internal install and broke the bolt in my pump. Returned it the next day and bought one of the HD Husky ones.
Oh! Digital! Thanks for bringing that up 02Pilot. We tested a few at work, and the very high-end digital we had completely sucked. I cannot say why. It was inaccurate and unrepeatable.
I have CDI torque wrenches and have been very happy so far. We use them at work as well for damper building.
Years ago, the HF ones used to be the ticket... http://www.hotrod.com/articles/ccrp-1304-torque-wrench-testing/
I don't know where they are now.
I have two different sizes of Tekton torque wrenches from Amazon. I haven’t had any problems with accuracy, and they’re holding up well.
HF now has a digital adapter thingie that you put between you regular wrench and the socket. It was like $25 or so, maybe less. Lots of people have good results with the 1/2" wrench. I have a couple that I have finally worn out. I just replaced it with another last Sunday, on sale for ten bucks. I could return the old one(s) but for ten bucks, they owe me nothing after 20+ years of use.
I have a craftsman inch-pound wrench. Needed it for this job on the road:
I wouldn't say the quality was stellar, and that was about 10 years ago now. Time flies.
I'd say the 1/4" one doesn't work. I've had a few jobs fail from using it.
tuna55 said:Oh! Digital! Thanks for bringing that up 02Pilot. We tested a few at work, and the very high-end digital we had completely sucked. I cannot say why. It was inaccurate and unrepeatable.
Well, that fills me with confidence. It seemed OK for the one job I've used it for thus far, but I'm going to have to do a bit of testing to make sure it isn't crap.
I have the 1/4" inch-pound one from H-F. It worked great the first time I used it to put the Neon motor back together. The second time I used it, I carefully set the torque and went to tighten the aluminum oil pan bolts on the GL. After snapping the first one I tried to tighten I discovered that it was now just a wrench with no torque measuring capability.
Upside is that while the shape is somewhat unique, it does make a great hammer.
I've never had any problems with my HF 1/4" torque wrench. The biggest thing with it is if you're on a very low torque setting it can click and break over so softly that you don't realize it clicked. You have to watch it closely and have a delicate feel to use it well.
I actually have every size of torque wrench that HF sells and they've so worked perfectly fine for. The only problem I've ever had is the 1/2" model will occasionally skip a pawl and catch you off guard.
The 3/4" is wonderful for axle nuts and basically anything over 150 ft-lbs. It has a nice long handle for good leverage.
Another satisfied CDI torque wrench user here.
In reply to Dr. Hess :
I bought one of those to use as a tester/fail safe for my regular Craftsman torque wrenches. I tested them against each other where they overlap, and the results were all really close and repeatable. I also Put the digital cube in line with the regular torque wrenches to see where if it matched the settings when the wrench clicked, and I had very good results.
Who was it on here that tested/calibrated scientific equipment? Can't remember, but he tested the HF click 1/2" torque wrenches and said they were spot on. That is, very good at what they claim to do. Of course, it might have been 10 years ago that he posted that.
In reply to Dr. Hess :
That thing is cool, but I need one that goes down to 60 in-lbs.
I have a couple from HF that I have had for many years. Both have worked fine and have held calibration since new.
The HF ft-lb torque wrenches are surprisingly decent but their inch-pound wrenches are a disaster. I broke two of them - the clicker seized up or something and they both refused to click after a half dozen uses. The second time it happened in the middle of a job and it was really annoying.
Like many of the others here, I use CDI torque wrenches now. I got a really good deal on both of mine because the previous owners didn't understand that they were a name brand and let them go for next to nothing.
I have the HF 1/4 and as prev posters mentioned the clicking mechanism is a bit iffy but still works ok for me. I noticed in light tq settings that it will not make the audible click but still has a sligh breakaway to it so I pay close attention. Under higher tq settings it clicks away just fine.
I have a 1/2 Ampro 10-150 ft-lbs that I've had for years and it looks identical to the HF 1/2 version seems to do fine for heavier stuff.
02Pilot said:tuna55 said:Oh! Digital! Thanks for bringing that up 02Pilot. We tested a few at work, and the very high-end digital we had completely sucked. I cannot say why. It was inaccurate and unrepeatable.
Well, that fills me with confidence. It seemed OK for the one job I've used it for thus far, but I'm going to have to do a bit of testing to make sure it isn't crap.
I can't share the data directly, but what I can say is this:
It was a major manufacturer, and fairly new. We were not testing torque wrenches, but rather testing the K value of a specific bolt and lubricant. We were measuring torque versus load for various setups. THe click style and the industrial hydraulic wrenches gave very repeatable results, meaning we got similar K values for repeat tests. The digital torque wrench threw the K values all over the place and we stopped using it.
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