| Author | Message | ||
     Kip |
Im looking to find one torque wrench for my uly. at 75 to hundreds of $ is there one brand to get or stay away from. thanks | ||
| Chadhargis |
I'd like to buy a new one. Mine is pretty old, and it's not a brand that can be calibrated. I'm thinking of buying a new Craftsman. Wish I could afford the Snap-On or Matco. | ||
| Ft_bstrd |
I bought the Craftsman and have been pretty happy with it. I don't know if it can be calibrated or not. I don't think it was that expensive, maybe $60. | ||
| Jackbequick |
And you actually need two torque wrenches. Normally a 1/4" drive that measure up to about 150 in/lbs and a 1/2" drive that will measure up to 150 or 250 ft/lbs. You can always find a bunch for sale on eBay, you just have to know how to spot what appear to be reliable sellers and hope they stay reliable for your transaction. Jack | ||
| Birdmanrh |
I use this, but that's just me. http://buy1.snapon.com/catalog/item.asp?P65=&tool= all&item_ID=68408&group_ID=17510&store=snapon-stor e&dir=catalog | ||
| Jmhinkle |
I've got a 3/8" drive Craftsman and a 1/2" drive Husky. Both are the click-stop style. I find the Husky to be nicer working and of higher quality than the Craftsman. I think they were also close in price. I find that the Craftsman doesn't go low enough on the in/lbs for a lot of use that I need. I have never found a 1/4" drive that was a reasonable price to get the low in/lbs readings needed for a lot of bikes. | ||
| Jackbequick |
I said 1/4" drive on the 0-150 in/lb one, it is commonly found in 3/8" drive too. It is not uncommon for the "click stop" styles to only click on right hand threads. Used in the other direction some of them have a "hard stop" and that makes then suitable for backing nuts off when loosening and re torqueing nuts. I also have an old but perfectly serviceable Craftsman beam and pointer style torque wrench and I use that for left hand threads when I need on. Here are about 850 torque wrenches on eBay right now... http://tinyurl.com/yx7lj8 Jack | ||
| Paochow |
Looks like tinyurl is overloaded. I'm in the market for a reasonably priced 1/4 torque wrench as well if anyone can recommend one. | ||
| Chadhargis |
The Husky is the one I have. It seems to be OK, but I've not found any place that will re-calibrate it. At the very least, I need to have it checked. It's pretty old, but I've taken good care of it. | ||
| Kip |
thanks for all the info it helps to have friends that save you money | ||
| Lowflyer |
Harbor Freight has torque wrenches. | ||
| Xbimmer |
Birdman that's some wrench, I could use one of those to torque those platinum wheel bearings Ft_B wants me to find for my Uly!  JK Ft_b! Beams for me, "calibration" means zeroing the pointer. I've got a Harbor Freight clicker but it's only for the cars and big fasteners. (Message edited by xbimmer on December 03, 2006) | ||
| Jackbequick |
Chad, If you have or can find a beam and pointer style torque wrench you can use that to check your clicker. I bored a hole through a block of wood, sawed that in half, and used that on the handle to clamp the clicker in a vise. I put a 1/2" socket on the clicker and used a 1/2" hex drive on the beam style. The clicker was "firing" consistently and close to the reading on the beam style and that satisfied my concerns. Those were both 0-150 ft/lb wrenches and I checked the clicker at various spots through at the 20-100 ft/lb range. Worst case, if you had another torque wrench with overlapping ranges, you could compare the two to get some confidence that they were working right. Jack | ||
| Chadhargis |
Great idea. Why didn't I think of that. I have a beam style torque wrench that I use for In/lb measurements since my clicker doesn't have that scale. It's also a 1/4" size for smaller fasteners. I used to use it to torque down the valve adjuster locknuts on my BMWs. | ||
| Stevenknapp |
Hey, I got a digital SnapOn for Valentines Day a couple years back (It *is* red) from my wife. So I've got my Craftsman clicker sitting around collecting dust. A few years back I had a friend calibrate it against a good quality beam wrench and he found the accuracy good enough. It's 3/8" drive. I could check the scale. If anyone's interested shoot me an email or PM. It's worked well, the snapon is all bling...Which I like. | ||
| Chadhargis |
I checked my clicker against my beam and the clicker clicked at the exact moment the beam wrench reached the matching torque. Clicker must be accurate. | ||
| Lorazepam |
Before you guys make a decision, check out this universal torque wrench http://sheldonbrown.com/tork-grip.html Blake repair typo in URL.  (Message edited by Blake on December 11, 2006) | ||
| Jackbequick |
Gale meant to say: http://sheldonbrown.com/tork-grip.html The link Gale posted has two http:// headers and sends you to http://www.w3.org/Protocols/ instead of the torque wrench place. Nice torque wrench, I think that is the one my local H-D dealer uses. :> Jack | ||
| Bobbuell1961 |
i need one of those!must be $19.95,w/a second one free,can't wait to find out the other freebees are! my visa #is 1200 1450 1690 1550 ex date now !please send it to ne now!Bob | ||
| Chrisb |
The beam types are affordable, accurate and can be had at sears or the sears website. Clickers are nice and I have more than one. I often find myself picking up the beam type esp if its one bolt and I'm not in the mood to play crank the handle to set the TQ on the clicker. Yea Yea I know the clickers are ratchting..take a good look at 99% of the clickers under $250 the head on them is huge and your not going to get into tight spots that frequently occur on motorcycles. Buy two beam types one in FT lbs the other IN lbs and spend the cash you saved on the bike. | ||
| Lovehamr |
Here are a couple used in the bicycle industry; http://www.cambriabike.com/shopexd.asp?id=32060 There is another from http://www.parktool.com/index.asp which goes to 600in/lbs. I use quite a few Park tools and have found them to be good quality. Here's a clicker from Pedro's, another good name in the cycling community; http://www.excelsports.com/new.asp?page=8&descript ion=Pro+Torque+Wrench&vendorCode=PEDROS&major=6&mi nor=6 Here's another clicker from Michigan Tools who I have no experience with; http://www.nashbar.com/profile.cfm?category=&subca tegory=&brand=&sku=15435&storetype=&estoreid=&page name=Show%20All%20Products Just a couple of alternatives for everyone to look at. | ||
| Jackbequick |
The Michigan Tools one is the standard Chinese cheapie that looks good, feels good, meets MILSPEC specs, and passes all normal tests for accuracy. You can probably find it on eBay for $9.95. |
