that is what i use to tighten things up.i did take a look before at the ducati book.but nah.if i feel it's tight enough for me,well that's enough.at the end of the day it's only bolt/gasket strenth.......
I have only ever used a torque wrench a few times on all my vehicles..............(someone nicked it in the end)........never had a bolt come undone.................(but I snapped a helluva lot of Mini cylinder head studs.....plastiscine they were). AL
No.....AF................IIRC a 9/16" socket or maybe 1/2" was used............ Alzheimer's mate.............I had eleven of the bl**dy cars as well.
Each to their own I guess but tight enough is not the issue. You are overlooking equal torque application as well as overtightening. Consider cylinder head studs/bolts/nuts or the pinch bolts on the rear hub clam shell of single sided swing arms, both in vunerable aluminium. The cost of damaging these parts far exceeds the cost of decent torque wrenches. If a job is worth doing then do it right. FWIW, I have six t/ws in various scales hope this helps
this is an interesting one as both approaches to tightening have their place don't they Nigelo? I add 'don't they' because for someone with that much kit (me too) you must have come across situations where use of a torque wrench even set to the recommended setting and even applying the recommended allowance factor known as 'lubricated' could still result in a stripped thread. There are times when you have to have a 'feel' for what is happening when you tighten a nut, bolt, screw or stud that no machine is capable of replicating.
I have two t wrenches and use them as often as possible, only last weekend I checked the engine mounting bolts after a winter engine change only to find that one bolt had stripped threads, it had previously been torqued up correctly. Had I not used the t wrench I would almost certainly have tightened it up tighter. Confusing. Steve
Most time-served spannerers know by feel when enough is just right on tightening and when to back off from trying to undo. The best advice was given in a Bultaco Pursang manual, it said, "Do not enter into a contest of strength with the fastenings"
I always use a torque wrench. I've never understood how people can think they can gauge the correct torque by 'feel'. Madness if you ask me.
Then I'm mad! After pulling bikes/cars apart for 30 years I use feel more than a torque wrench, although I will dig it out of the tool box when necessary
It's not difficult to get a feel for how much load you're putting onto a fastener as long as you use the correct tools but I despair when I see small sockets being used on a 1/2" drive ratchet where you got as much feel as having a wank wearing boxing gloves :smile:
Absolutely agree with Chris above and would add that a t/w in unskilled hands is always going to be worse than no t/w in skilled hands. I can judge a reasonable amount of torque for jobs that I have done often and where it is not critical but would NEVER attempt the 2 examples I gave above without using a t/w. As an example of how critical torque settings can be, a few years back, Maserati had a series of head gasket failures on their 3200gt twin turbo V8s just after commencing production under control of Ferrari. Source of the prob was quickly traced to inadequate head tightening procedure / defective gaskets. They issued superceded head gaskets and changed torque control on bolt tightening sequence requiring 3 torque settings in stages instead of the original 2 stages. The M8 pinch bolts on the rear hub clam shell of a Panigale require just 40NM and gradually tightened in a 1-2-1-2 fashion. Get this wrong and you can seriously damage something. As chain adjustment involves this procedure on a fairly regular basis, I just do not see the point of taking any risk without a t/w. hope this helps
At a different end of the scale....(pun)........I could tune all my drumheads (usually 8 - 10 screws per head) by feel of the key.....and then listen to the note at each screw.......I rarely had to re-adjust the screw. I guess that transferred quite well to nuts and bolts.....but as I said, I have snapped several Mini head stud bolts early on when I started to fiddle with cars and bikes. What should be remembered is that many of us are old enough to have worked on vehicles long before torque wrenches were readliy available / at sensible prices...........(about the time when a bloke walked in front of cars with a red flag)..... .......so we had to do it with simple spanners and nothing fancy like special tools......and if we did need something special, we improvised without b*ggering things up unlike some diy-ers do today. AL
Well at 62 years young, I sympathise but way back in my youth, tool hire shops were plentiful for those "special tools" and Halfrauds did offer a really cheapo t/w with a torsion bar indicator that you read off on a scale. No mean feat trying to keep it steady whilst applying 150+ ft lbs. Better than nothing but correct calibration was always a concern. Full agree with the DIY buggeruppers but I must confess at "repairing" a broken split link on the drive chain of an "agricultural" spec Ariel 500cc single with meccano parts at the tender age of just 13 and no, I am not joking. Open clutch, seat with springs but no covering, no exhaust header let alone silencer, girder front forks and no rear suspension - Pinched your arse going over bumps and scorched your jeans at anything over 20mph - Good old days!! FWIW, Meccano chain survived well until the complete clutch assembly fell out one day
I remember that bl**dy stupid tool.............you might just as well have tied a bit of rope to the spanner, tied a noose in the other end and then stuck your Mum's kitchen scales in the noose and then pulled hard. Ah, but we learned our skills from making things and making do;.......I did it with an old 500 Enfield Bullet in similar condition to your Ariel.....The clutch cork inserts were flush to the plate, so I cut up several Fairy Liquid bottles and made up some hoops (like quoits) and slipped them in between the cork plates and the steel plates.......Four at least went in there,,,,,,,,,,,,,It lasted for ages, running in oil, that I stopped p*ssing out of the cases by making gaskets out of cornflake packets. AL
Only use on rear wheel and anything fiddly like cylinder head studs I go nowhere near these days! But although I may use a socket to put stuff on, when it comes to tight I will always try to use the right spanner or allen key, thats why they are the length they are isn't it, to stop too much force being applied?
