do you know what a torque stick is.......I do.

[gathermewool]

Foot times pound
Foot-pound
Ft-lb


One pound at one foot from center is one foot-pound. Fifty feet applied to a 2-feet-long lever is 100 ft-lbs of torque.

There is no such thing as ft/lb

 

[bunnspecial]

I would hope no one would use one of these monstrosities on a head, but none the less I found myself fighting head bolts a little while ago that must have been put on by a gorilla. The spec is 50 ft-lbs, and I couldn't get them to budge with my 6'2", 260lb self leaning on a 2-ft breaker bar. I'm recharging the cordless impact wrench(no air in my garage) to hopefully have a go at them.

All of that aside, I don't see the advantage of using an intermediate tool when I'm torquing my lugnuts. I typically spin them on with my impact gun but stop well before it "clicks". I then hand tighten in the correct sequence with a socket held in my hand(or sometimes just by spinning the nuts), torque to half the spec with a torque wrench in the correct sequence, then follow up with the correct torque. That's how I was taught to do it-in fact on engine heads(which I know are a whole different ball game) was taught to tighten in sequence the specified sequence in 5 ft-lb intervals.

BTW, one of my cars calls for 65 ft-lbs. It seems uncomfortably low, but at the same time I've never found a loose lug nut. I have to be careful with the torque wrench-it's easy to go over with that, and you have to be johnny on the spot with the clicks. I actually use a 3/8" drive torque wrench on this car just because the "click" is better defined at 65 ft-lbs than it is on a larger 1/2" drive wrench.

 

[ajchien]

Originally Posted By: motor_oil_madman
Yeah I know you can get them off amazon. etc. I just figured it would be something available locally. I was doing some research it seems that some sticks have a torque limit of 250 ft pounds, so if you put it on an impact wrench set at 500ft pounds it probably won't be accurate.


Quite true. The input torque needs to be calibrated so that the output torque is correct. You also can't hammer at it for a minute and expect it not to overtighten.

I don't see it as being any faster than snugging it up with an impact and then finishing with a torque wrench, but it is a lot faster than a 4 way, or a breaker bar, or a ratchet. I guess it depends on how much confidence you have in feeling it snug up with the impact without overtightening.

I use predominantly a 80 ft-lb torque stick with an impact @ 200 ft/lbs torque. I know once it starts hammering 5-15 hits, it's at about 70 ft-lbs. after which a torque wrench finishes it off at 80 ft lbs with just a slight turn. Works for me.