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Torque Wrenches

Entoptic

Entoptic

Red Power!
Joined
Mar 13, 2007
Location
Buy GoPro Now!
Moto(s)
MV Agusta Brutale Dragster RR
Where in the bay area, preferably south bay, can I purchase a good torque wrench that can tighten to 220nm? I need one for the MV Agusta.

Thanks in advance.
 
Harbor Freight! Since I only use my torque wrenches a hand full of times a year, I went from buying Craftsmen to Pittsburgh (it's a cheap commute). But the heavy is a Craftsman.
 
rsrider said:
Harbor Freight! Since I only use my torque wrenches a hand full of times a year, I went from buying Craftsmen to Pittsburgh (it's a cheap commute). But the heavy is a Craftsman.
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Horrible Freight can be really hit or miss. I used a tq wrench from there that didn't click at the lower end of its supposed range and I did more damage to my Grom motor than the price of a decent Snap-On.
 
Single sided swing arms need a lot of torque.
 
mrzuzzo said:
Horrible Freight can be really hit or miss. I used a tq wrench from there that didn't click at the lower end of its supposed range and I did more damage to my Grom motor than the price of a decent Snap-On.
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You pays your money, you takes your chances. One of the Craftsman went weird on me, but it came back around after some judicious tweaking. Plus, I've been tightening bolts for so long I haven't done any damage for a few decades now. But the older I get, the more I hate wrenching. I've owned Hardleys, MC's from the way back times, Volkswagen's, and MGB's, so I'm probably all wrenched out. And those were just the ones that were in constant need of TLC. I only do now what would piss me off if I had to pay someone to do it, because of the premium $$$$ that shop time has become. If I was rich, I would never touch another fucking tool for the rest of my life. (and that includes my own)

Single sided swing arms need a lot of torque.
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Ducati is like 150 ft lbs. The Vespa, not so much.
 
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I purchased a Precision Instruments split beam torque wrench on Amazon and like it a lot. Lots of good reviews in terms of quality, durability and accuracy.

They have most of their models available via prime.
 
dravnx said:
Single sided swing arms need a lot of torque.
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I use my 1/2 inch drive with a 3 foot breaker bar. Lord knows if I gorilla it too much or too little but so far, I have never had one loosen. When I broke free my Ducati axle nut, it was obvious somebody had put the air gun to it, it was way too tight.
 
I've posted this before, but I think it bears repeating.

When I worked for Alan Johnson/Al-Anabi Racing, they were sponsored by (it changed yearly), Travers Tool Company, Snap-On, Matco, and if I recall correctly, Cornwell Tools, and I think Proto also, there were a lot of Proto tools around. There was a tool box (there were a lot of toolboxes there), with a whole buttload of torque wrenches in. Maybe 75 of them. Maybe more. Inch pound, foot pound, 1/4, 3/8, 1/2, fucking everything. I go to grab one, and a guy says, "check it against the torque load check chingus over on the wall.", which had a load meter with digital readout, you set the torque wrench to say, 82 ft lbs, go until it either beeps or clicks, and read the true foot pounds of torque. And I don't think any of them were right on, I know some of them were way off. Even the new ones weren't dead nuts.

I had always assumed that the bigger money, high end stuff, was the way to go, but it isn't necessarily so. If you don't have one of those load meters, or have access to one real close to where you are working on your stuff (as in checking it every time you use it), you really don't know for sure what you are clicking at.

Someone mentioned to me that the most consistent ones they checked were the beam type, they don't change much over time.
 
There is also is a range of accuracy for torque wrenches between 20% to 80% of stated maximum torque. At either the low or high end you can get bad readings. I like my dial torque wrench, dont know about its accuracy though. My favorite torque spec is on harley sprocket nut, 50ft.lbs plus 30 to 45* degrees. You are literally hanging on the breaker saying move you fucking nut move, then you say fuck it close enough.
 
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corndog67 said:
I've posted this before, but I think it bears repeating.

When I worked for Alan Johnson/Al-Anabi Racing, they were sponsored by (it changed yearly), Travers Tool Company, Snap-On, Matco, and if I recall correctly, Cornwell Tools, and I think Proto also, there were a lot of Proto tools around. There was a tool box (there were a lot of toolboxes there), with a whole buttload of torque wrenches in. Maybe 75 of them. Maybe more. Inch pound, foot pound, 1/4, 3/8, 1/2, fucking everything. I go to grab one, and a guy says, "check it against the torque load check chingus over on the wall.", which had a load meter with digital readout, you set the torque wrench to say, 82 ft lbs, go until it either beeps or clicks, and read the true foot pounds of torque. And I don't think any of them were right on, I know some of them were way off. Even the new ones weren't dead nuts.

I had always assumed that the bigger money, high end stuff, was the way to go, but it isn't necessarily so. If you don't have one of those load meters, or have access to one real close to where you are working on your stuff (as in checking it every time you use it), you really don't know for sure what you are clicking at.

Someone mentioned to me that the most consistent ones they checked were the beam type, they don't change much over time.
Click to expand...

That's a somewhat scary post. The manuals always state how critical the torque values are, and so you go out and get, what you think is the proper tool, and it's really just a matter of hit or miss. :nchantr
 
rsrider said:
That's a somewhat scary post. The manuals always state how critical the torque values are, and so you go out and get, what you think is the proper tool, and it's really just a matter of hit or miss. :nchantr
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The thing that most home and pro wrenchers sometimes don't understand is that a tool like a torque wrench is a calibrated instrument. Like all calibrated instruments they should be certified and adjusted to a known lab standard at standard intervals. I used to be work in metrology and even the most expensive instruments will "drift" from their original set points and need recalibration.

So even the big dollar truck brands need to be checked against a known standard. Price doesn't really have anything to do with it. Don't think of it as a big ratchet, it's a calibrated instrument.
 
catch2otwo said:
The thing that most home and pro wrenchers sometimes don't understand is that a tool like a torque wrench is a calibrated instrument. Like all calibrated instruments they should be certified and adjusted to a known lab standard at standard intervals. I used to be work in metrology and even the most expensive instruments will "drift" from their original set points and need recalibration.

So even the big dollar truck brands need to be checked against a known standard. Price doesn't really have anything to do with it. Don't think of it as a big ratchet, it's a calibrated instrument.
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Agree 100%. I've been preaching the need to have your torque wrenches calibrated forever. I spent a few years calibrating torque wrenches as part of my job in the USAF. There, the cal interval was 90 days and many wrenches had to be adjusted.
 
So....

Where are some places in the Bay Area where we can get torque wrenches checked?

Allyn
 
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