Torque Wrench?

veritas.wilson wrote: kobalt also comes with a life time guarantee which isnt advertised very well. lowes's attempt to keep up with sears, and as always with lowes, its very easy to return anything there

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I am 99% sure that Kobalt/Lowes only warranties torque wrenches for 1 year. That's what started this thread, I was considering a Kobalt torque wrench but went with Harbour Freight and have been very pleased. I got a 1/4" drive, a 3/8" drive and a 1/2" drive for like $40 or something ridiculous like that.

I personally highly recommend beam type torque wrenches for most hobbyist uses. My reasons are listed below & based on many years of personal experience.


1: They are simple & inexpensive.
2: They are VERY durable.
3: They are accurate

Drop a clicker, dial or electronic wrench & you have probably just rendered it useless. You can do almost anything to a beam wrench without hurting it . . .even loosen bolts (Please do not do it anyway). The only calibration they ever seem to need is to tweak the pointer to read 0.

Zedone wrote: With all due respect to purchasing "Overseas" tools and especially torque wrenches I 100% totally disagree. IMHO a high end torque wrench is one tool you shd. drop $$$ on. The last place you want to have a fastener fail is on a brake or suspension component.... let alone a crank main, cam cap, ect due to incorrect torque values. Sorry, I just don't understand the logic of using a cheap tool in critical areas. Regards, Doug

I guess that's kind of like not understanding how someone can determine the quality of a tool based on the purchase price. Personally, I judge tool quality on construction and suitability for designed usage, and the majority of Harbor Freight tools fail my test, but not all.

And I've been a professional wrench for ~40 years

Read the above post on calibrating your own torque wrenches. While I have posted the same idea many times, that post is much better than any of mine.

As a complete beginner whose first bike is a '81 kz440, I'd like to share my observations about Torque wrenches.

Main observation is this (and I wish I'd read this on day one): Do not go cheap on a torque wrench.

I read that every bike owner who plans to do his own tweaking needs a torque wrench first and foremost. So I went to my local true value and bought an inch/pound torque wrench for $30. The first time I twisted the settings I realized that the 'Zero' on the twisting handle did not perfectly align with the inch/pounds on the solid handle.
"Well, what do i know?", I figured. "This thing can't be junk, it's brand new!"

So I went to work on changing my license tabs and changing my oil. On both little projects the bolt stripped (old bolts, but still) and I was S.O.L.

I went and bought an $80 craftsman torque wrench with a 3/4 inch socket attachment, with ft/lbs. Now, when I told my mechanic my woes, he told me that the IDEAL torque wrench for bikes is a 1/4 inch attachment, that is calibrated to inch/pounds. I tend to believe him, and I'll contact craftsman to see if they'll exchange it for me because I believe my mechanic.

Also, my mechanic recommended that on older bikes (such as mine) it's best to not go up completely to factory settings, because a 30 year old bike is about to strip. What do you pros think?

But for beginners, the point is: don't go cheap on a torque wrench.

I have an assortment of torque wrenches including a beam. Odd thing was that when I replaced my clicker I went to Sears and looked at theirs for $80 but couldn't find anything on the package about exactly where it was made so then thought I'd check around first. Had to stop in at Harbor Freight for some buffer wheels and noticed that their torque wrench came in the exact same plastic box as the Sears one did and it looked remarkably like the Sears one, very remarkably. Since I could return the Harbor Freight one no questions asked I went ahead and bought it for a whopping $10. Took it home and checked it against my beam in a very unscientific test by using the clicker on a few bolts then verifying it against the beam and it was dead on. I still have it and wouldn't give it a moments thought in using it on whatever needs torquing.

The key is to not trust ANY clicker without either checking its calibration by a test like the one above or simply against a beam type as often as is practical. Snap-on and MAC tools might or might not be better but without a doubt a good portion of their price is brand puffing. I think have just about every brand of tool known to man from my own and my inherited tool collection from my father plus my wife's dad & brother own a tool sales company so guess what I get for birthdays and Christmas?!

www.hotrod.com/how-to/additional-how-to/...rque-wrench-testing/

Just got my digital torque wrench in the mail- I'll let you know how it does.