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How do you / what do you use?


AidanT

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Normal spanners are made a lengt to enable  good firm load will achive the correct level of tight!

So   its two shreaded wheat and a firm heave , you dont need to club hammer or stand on it to get a result 

Specila fixings may need extra effort but theres little special on our cars thats special fixing

Things like bearing caps and cyl heads need to be adequate and  nice and equal , lets face it most toqure controls came about to enable unskilled Production operators to achieve consistent and reliable results

Pete

 

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"Torque" is twisting force, and expressed as the force on the end of a lever that is a specified length - hence "pounds-feet" (lbs-ft).  If you live in a Metric world, the same is Newton-metres (Nm)

If a spanner is a foot long, and you can pull twenty pounds on the end, you are exerting 20 lbs-ft of torque on the nut.  But few of the smaller spanners are that long, so you will have to pull a bit harder on an eight inch spanner to exert the same torque (20 x 12/8 = 30)

Very roughly, 20lbs-ft is about "hand tight".    Less would be 'finger tight'.

I suspect - you don't say, but I have the same problem - that you are doing up exhaust manifold nuts to the head?  And they are 20lbs-ft.   Worse, that front lower nut , you can't get a full length 1/2"AF spanner to swing on it, nor a socket on an extension.   My solution, a cut down spanner, 'bound' with a length of copper pipe so it doesn't cut into my hand.  Then pull it as hard as you can!

John

PS There's a hole drilled in the spanner and the pipe, to wire them together, so the pipe doesn't fall off.   The wire is bound with tape.

Cut down spanner.png

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I

Hi

It's actually the top ball joint nut this time and 35lbft or so my list says. There's no way I can see to get a socket on it so I guess a bit of elbow grease on a spanner. Have seen a torque spanner set but not sure how they would work

Aidan 

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some might use a crow foot spanner for ackward places    USAG - Crow-foot wrenches 

you can attatch a torque wrench or ratchet to these 

Aidan, just do it by hand , as tight as is comfortable  35 is a normal sort of torque ( well a 4lbs higher ) than a normal 3/8unf blt   ( 9/16af)

and 35 is  not high for a 7/16unf taper thread  and 11/16" af nut ...its not something to worry about ...just get it  'tight'  no forhead blood vessels required here 

you dont need your feet on the spanner !!!!

Pete

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Must admit when I recently refitted my manifold I torqued up the nuts I could get to then applied a spanner to the same and 'estimated' the force needed to very slightly move the nut. Then with a fully calibrated hand and bicep did the same to the inaccessible ones. Very DIY but we all know we can spend a fortune on tools that we may only use once.

Adrian

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if you need to get carried away with how tight ,  to double check your arm hand calibration,  do a nut/bolt up by hand then use the torque spanner to see what you achieved 

if you torque a nut up to 30  it will probaly take 35 to move it on any more 

dont forget retorquing needs to overcome the sticktion of the nut , thats why on a retorque you back it off half a turn before reaplying.

Pete

 

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Thanks all 

I will do some elbow grease measuring and use that for now. There have been a few situations where I have found myself wondering on this!  Just waiting for .My kind nut delivery from Richard 

 

Aidan 

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7 hours ago, Adrian said:

Must admit when I recently refitted my manifold I torqued up the nuts I could get to then applied a spanner to the same and 'estimated' the force needed to very slightly move the nut. Then with a fully calibrated hand and bicep did the same to the inaccessible ones. Very DIY but we all know we can spend a fortune on tools that we may only use once.

Adrian

This is exactly what I do :)

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As Pete suggests, I would use a Crow's foot spanner on the end of a torque wrench - because I have a set, and I can.

If I didn't, and the torque was critical, then I'd use a combination spanner, with a spring balance pulling on the ring - having first calculated the required pull force for the length of the spanner.

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I really don't think that it would ever be critical, but a croswfoot wiil increase or decrease the torque applied, relative by on the wrench setting.  It depends on how the crowsfoot is oriented on the wrench, to shorten or lengthen the lever.

John

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