For the the first time in my life I bought a torque wrench. I probably
don't need one, but I see in Bentley that every TR6 nut and bolt has a
specific torque recommendation. (Here comes the neophyte once again.) I
bought the kind that "clicks" and I decided to test it out on my son's
Suzuki Swift while changing the oil. (The manual has a torque
recommendation for the oil drain plug.) I first tested the wrench on a
couple of unimiportant bolts, and it worked fine. So I changed the oil and
filter. Then I went to tighten down the drain bolt with my handy-dandy new
wrench. I set the dial, reefed on the bolt, putting pressure on it, but the
wrench didn't "click". I decided I wasn't cranking hard enough, although my
experience told me the bolt was plenty tight. Okay, I cranked harder. No
"click". Harder still. I stopped and tried again, etc. No "click". Then,
oops! I felt the whole bolt give way. Of course, I thought I'd stripped
the threads (and so did my wife, by the sound of the cursing coming from the
garage). . . .but luckily, it turns out I'd crushed the drain plug
gasket---and it was this that caused the bolt to suddenly give way as it
smashed the gasket down. Later in the day, I replaced that gasket, got out
my normal old socket wrench and tightened up the bolt in the normal "snug"
manner to which I'm accustomed.
Am I missing something here? THIS is the kind of experience that causes
people to never want to work on cars, period. A simple task that results in
a near disaster. This wrench is supposed to "click" and it didn't---at
least not at that angle. I might have stripped the threads in the drain
plug, causing no end of automotive hell. So did I buy a bad wrench? The
wrong wrench? Is the "click" so subtle that only an expert can feel it at
certain angles? I took the wrench back to Tool Town and got my money back.
Comments?
--Phil Haldeman
haldeman@accessone.com
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