Torque Adapter

[Alan Drover]

My torque wrench is decades old and may have contributed to my MGB overheating. I've been looking at torque adapters which fit between the ratchet and socket and can be set to bleep at the preset torque. They operate on the Wheatstone Bridge principle. The one that looks the best for my needs is an AC Delco tools ARM302-45 model
Has anyone ever used a torque adapter?

[diffwhine]

I've got one. Mine's just a Draper one, but works OK. Nothing like as simple as a normal torque wrench.

Many years ago, I bought an old Snap-On dial torque wrench off the local rep. When I bought it in 1992, it was already 40 years old. Its been through annual calibration checks every year since 2007 and has never needed adjustment. Its still the one I like best!

[Ian F]

Alan,
   my choice would be a quality conventional torque wrench which just clicks at the preset torque. Much simpler than anything involving electricity and more reliable. I have   a norbar one and a Halfords professional one with a different torque range. Just don't buy something cheap and obscure!!!!

Ian F

[NoBeardNoTopKnot]

I'm glad this subject is being covered. Seems you can pay inordinate amounts for a decent torque-wrench, more so a calibrated example. You're working with delicate alloy engine and cylinder-heads etc all day long. Fair enough.

Only fact is I'm an amateur. I  have call for one, once in a blue. Thus the click-type might not be for me, because I'll buy a cheapo, and who knows if it's accurate?

And how would I know anyway?

 Instead I use a torsion-bar type. It can't be put of whack, or wear, or require calibration, and it 'appears' to do a solid enough job. For the sort of use I put it to anyway...

Only there must be more to this, people don't spend vast amounts on these things without reason.

Or maybe they do, some queue to pay 4-5 times as much for Castrol 20/50 or EP90 because it comes in  green livery and says 'vintage' on the tin. Whereas if we are to think,  the last hope we have for oil is for its specification to be  'vintage'. And £25,000 for a Snap-On tool-box is not unheard of.

My Q? For amateur part-time use, and I accept it's slower to use, aside form this, where is the flaw in my cheapo, and my thinking?

Mine's like this, why is this not good?

[Craig T]

I've got a couple of them, they do work well.
You can mess about setting the limit so it beeps or you can simply read the numbers and stop when you get there.
I have a small 1/4" drive version and a larger 1/2" drive version.

I have used mine as a double check for my old fashioned clicking torque wrench and they seem to agree with each other. The smaller 1/4" one I can test at work on a calibrated tester but I can't do the 1/2" one here as the machine doesn't read high enough.

Take the batteries out when you are finished though and keep them separately. Don't want them leaking in the device over winter.

The ones I can't understand are the ones that look the same but do torque angle too. You do them up to a torque setting then the device tells you when you have rotated it another set amount like 90°. They are used for stretch type bolts on more modern engines.
Just how does it work measuring 90° without a reference to a fixed object?

Craig.

[NoBeardNoTopKnot]

This thread has started me on a fair bit of homework. It seems these things are quite a contentious subject.

There is no simple answer.

Broadly it comes down to, either:

1) Too many in blind trust of what they're being told and sold,
2) Spending more than anyone in a non-professional environment can truly justify.

As far as I can make out, my blind logic to why I use what I now know as a 'beam' type torque-wrench comes out, about as good as the next. Which generally isn't good.

You're set to spend a lot of money and upkeep to buy the right' kit... and then keep it calibrated. Unless you're spending upwards of £500 on both 3/8" and 1/2" stuff by Wera and Snap-on etc etc, whatever you buy, you'll not know if it's 'off' . You'll have no way of ever knowing.

Wiith so many variables, rust, oil and dry threads it comes down to experience and 'feel' aligned to any fair tool. Thus a 'beam' type is as good as any, and generally cheaper.

Which, unless you spend the loot, is not the same as good.