MZ5
Well-Known Member
I have two 3/8” torque wrenches. One is a click-type and one is a beam-type. They result in WILDLY different results on nuts and bolts, in terms of how tight they are.
Small bolts such as those that hold the plastics on our bikes will vibrate loose and fall out within days when I use the click-type wrench. That doesn’t happen with the beam-type wrench. I have thought a time or two the beam wrench puts a bit too much tension on those very low-tension bolts.
The point is that having a torque wrench gives little or no more assurance of correct fastener tension than using feel for many common applications (assuming one has some experience), AND ALSO that many common bolts have a wide range of acceptable tension. In fact, I’ve seen a published article on the topic which showed exactly that, but I can’t lay hands on it at the moment.
Small bolts such as those that hold the plastics on our bikes will vibrate loose and fall out within days when I use the click-type wrench. That doesn’t happen with the beam-type wrench. I have thought a time or two the beam wrench puts a bit too much tension on those very low-tension bolts.
The point is that having a torque wrench gives little or no more assurance of correct fastener tension than using feel for many common applications (assuming one has some experience), AND ALSO that many common bolts have a wide range of acceptable tension. In fact, I’ve seen a published article on the topic which showed exactly that, but I can’t lay hands on it at the moment.