Just how essential is a torque wrench?

[busbar]

As a car driver for 20-odd years now, I've never really tinkered with my vehicles other than checking oil and water (and that wasn't very often) but, as a newcomer to biking, I know that making adjustments and maintenance are things I now need to get a grasp of.

I'm a fairly practical kind of bloke and a competent DIY-er so shouldn't have too much trouble turning my hand to this as long as I have a manual to refer to so last night, after two weeks of YBR ownership, I decided to familiarise myself with checking bits of the bike. All seems in order apart from the chain being a tad mucky and too slack, and I think it might be an idea to sort this before I ride it again. I've read the manual but it mentions tightening torques for axle and brake rod nuts and I don't have a torque wrench, although I'll probably end up buying one eventually.

Just how essential is it to have a torque wrench for this kind of maintenance and would it be ok to tighten these nuts without one?

[sensi5446]

[Rogerborg]

I've never used a torque wrench on an axle nut yet. I wouldn't expect a garage to use one either.
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[busbar]

Thanks guys, that's reassuring.

I'm not particularly heavy handed/ham fisted so I'd like to think I can get a nut tight without stripping a thread, but I just want to be sure I'm not going to eff something up by using spanners and/or a socket or two.

[Bezzer]

[stinkwheel]

I find them useful for very precise things like cylinder head nuts and for very delicate things like the rocker blocks on my Enfield (which do up to 5ft/lb which is not very tight at all).
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[Howling TerrorOutOfOffice]

For the most part I go by feel but some areas of the bike I prefer some 'mental security' so use the torque wrench on chain adjuster bolts, fork pinch bolts and wheel nuts. ...and calipers..sump plug.
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[bugeye_bob]

For axle nuts I use the bikes own spanner, that way I know it will come off at the side of the road,
as mentioned as long as your not bull ion china shop you should actually feel when its tight.

[yen_powell]

I'm the other way round, I use a torque wrench for front and rear axle nuts (and maybe sprocket nuts/bolts), everything else I do it till it feels right, especially the small stuff where I'd rather go by feel than keep tightening because the torque wrench says I haven't finished yet.
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[Llama-Farmer]

I would say very essential... but then I have spent countless hours and days fixing problems from people over tightening stuff (although thats on a car).

Usually their sump nuts or the seat/seatbelt mounting bolts which breaks the internal spot weld thread on the other side of the hole.


On a bike, theres less bolts and less welded threads like that. Sump nut would be the obvious high-risk one of over tightening.


They aren't that expensive though, and very useful to have.
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[stinkwheel]

[smegballs]

If you have an old scrap engine block or somesuch, practice stripping bolts off. Get to know the feel of how much welly you can give steel in ally, steel in steel, steel in iron etc.

Much better to practice on a scrap block than a real one.

[m3-paul]

I use my torque wrenches on an any of the more critical bolts, axle nuts, engine mounts, swing arms, sumps etc. I have them so may as well use them. I did a swing arm nut up recently on my TZR250 to what I thought was the correct torque but was actually off by 15nm (under tightened) when I put the torque wrench on it.

I would say if you work on your own bike then it is a worthwhile investment.
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[stevo as b4]

They have a place in your toolbox, next to common sense and never in place of. My mate did the old oil sump plug stripped thread job on his first bike. It still makes me wince TBH!

For 1st time gentle home maintenance tasks, I'd say they are not really needed. If your getting into stripping bikes completely, engine work, or non simple home maintenance tasks like replacing a mono shock, then yes It's a very good tool to have!

The idea of practicing on something scrap or that belongs to someone else is a good idea, as you can only really get a feel for things this way.

Remember when storing your Torque Wrench/Wrench's, to keep them clean, dry and protected in either a case or tube or wrapped in something soft to stop them rolling around in your toolbox, and always unwind the torque settings to zero before storage.

[Copycat73]

just read this ... oh sh1t I`ve got 4 of the things .. 1/4 3/8 1/2 and 3/4 drives
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[YBR Ric]

Torque figures are for dry nuts and bolts unless specifically quoted as wet (pre-oiled).
A sump plug by nature will end up going into a wet hole so when applying the book quoted DRY torque figure it will end up being overtightened and therefore close to stripping.

[busbar]

Well I adjusted my chain tension tonight and my concerns about over-tightening the axle bolts all but evaporated as soon as I put my ring spanners on and tried to undo them - I couldn't budge them! It took a cautious smack with a mallet on the end of the spanner to get them moving so when I'd finished I just tightened them with the spanners as tight as I could using steady movements without particularly excessive force, but still knowing that they are secure.

[G]

If you have to ask.... it might actually be useful.

But once you've used one for a bit you should soon get an idea of what a quoted torque 'feels' like.

[STONEY!]

My mate Adrian is like a human torque wrench he even makes a click sound when something's done up right, he's been put to the test a few times and always been right lol

[Slacker24seve...]

I have three torque settings:

Finger tight plus a quarter turn
Quite tight
FT

I pick whichever is most appropriate. The only times I have used a torque wrench have been for bits of engine.
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[Shaft]

In my day job, I run a garage that works on cars and we hardly ever use torque wrenches, unless it's on nuts/bolts that need very specific torque settings, like cylinder head fixings.

Cars tend to use coarser pitch threads and larger diameter fittings, plus most of the important bits aren't overly exposed to weather, so corrosion isn't often an issue.

On a bike, everything is exposed and it's mostly tiny and cheaply made, from lightweight materials.

If you aren't an experienced spanner man, I would say a decent torque wrench is a very worthwhile investment, along with a good supply of some sort of copper anti seize grease.
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[Teflon-Mike]

They are useful. But, most common torque wrenches are yard-long 'high-range' wrenches covering the sort of torques you have to set on diesel engine cylinder head studs, or brake calliper mounting bolts. Useful if you are fixing head-gaskets or overhauling brake callipers...

Much more 'useful' but much less common, especially on a motorbike, is a 'low-range' 1/4 drive torque wrench; this covers the sort of 5-25Kg-m range that general 'non critical' fasteners fall into, like the ubiquitousness M6 (10mm Spanner) casing screw, used everywhere on motorbikes and everything else these days, and NOT so much to make sure that they are done up 'tight enough' but to make sure they aren't done up too much, and you start stripping threads out of alloy casings.

Topic of conversation yesterday actually with No3 Son; who was getting all over exited being allowed to play with a 125 Super-Dream and 'spanners', and when he reached for the socket set, getting told "NO! I said SPANNERS!", and arguing blind with me they were the same thing, followed by, "yeahbut" and bluster that sockets are 'easier'; leading to lecture on the merit of spanners and 'simple' hand tools.... you are now going to get.

If you are a socket jockey... and so many are these days... then a torque wrench is almost essential.... because with umpety moving parts and loose snap joints between the palm of your hand and the thing you are tightening, you have bog all 'feel' through the tool for it.

If you look at your spanners, the 6mm spanner has a handle that is maybe 2 1/2" long.. the 19mm spanner will have a handle that's perhaps 12" long.

'Torque' remember is force times leverage; so the different handle lengths on spanners are strategically the length they are, so that for the same 'palm pressure' you get the typical fastening torque for the size bolt you are doing up.

And, a single bit of metal; there's nothing else between your palm and the fastener, which you can see, in the jaw of the spanner... so you can see AND feel what's going on.

On usual 3/8 drive ratchet wrench you have a handle about as long as a 17mm spanner, but can have any sized socket on there, from maybe 6mm up to 19mm...

So you don't have the inherent 'palm pressure' torque sense a spanner offers, and you are far more likely to put two or three times the torque a small fastener needs onto it, through a handle as long as one for a fastener three times the size...

You also cant SEE the fastener in the socket.. so you dont know if the jaws are opening or the corners rounding, until the ratchet slips, or the socket splits!

And the force you are applying 'off-set' from the head by at least the height of the socket, if not an extension, so are applying torque in two axis to where its reacted.. making it harder to hold and twist and keep it straight

AND you have any slop and flex in all the moveable and de-mountable 'parts' between your palm and the fastener....

ALL conspiring to rob you of 'feel'.

So a torque wrench is 'more' essential to a socket-jockey, providing the 'feel' they dont have, with an artificial palm in the form of a snap-head!

WARNING: - when it comes to torque wrenches; ALWAYS CHECK THE UNITS.

1Kg-m is 10Nm, is 7 1/4 ft-lb.

As many fasteners are very accurately 'set' to the wrong torque with a torque wrench, than are very inaccurate set, closer to the right one, with a spanner!

I very memorably had to drive 250 miles when I was at college once to find out what one of my mates had done to his Morris Minor, to discover that he had tried to do up the 7/16AF screws holding the oil pump on with a yard long high range torque wrench, set 10x the torque in the book... I think it was something like 6Ft-Lb... but high range torque wrench didn't start that low, so he found the lowest 6 on the scale, which was 6Kg-m!

As has been said by others; no tool is a substitute for common sense.
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[Sload]

People keep saying common sense, but how would somebody who has never played with tools know what common sense is?

The post about the open ended spanners is good advice and applicable. As stated, critical bolts require a torque wrench, big sodding bolts & nuts you are usually safe to go to "FT" on. Smaller stuff if you are using a spanner or ratchet i tend to use a single finger and thumb to prevent me from over torquing them to stop me pulling in all my arm as a lever, especially when I'm on a quarter inch ratchet or sub 10mm.
Remember your materials as well, if you are in steel you are fairly safe, ali and other softer materials will strip or round well before steel so require a gentler touch.
Gasketed covers require a bit of a softer touch too and uniform torque as I learned the first time I did a rocker cover gasket, "FT" just doesn't do it.

So to the OP, just apply some common sense..
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[busbar]

Fortunately for me I think I have got a foot in the camp with the ability to use common sense.

As an electrician, and a fairly active DIY-er at home, I'm no stranger to using tools but I just don't have a lot of experience in using them on vehicles. At work I do sometimes get to use spanners and sockets on electrical connections, preferably with the electrcial supply isolated , and it is then that common sense has to kick in to ensure that connections are tight, but not too tight.

As was mentioned earlier in the thread, I guess one advantage of using spanners and common sense is to remove the risk of relying entirely on a torque wrench where poor quality, poor calibration or an incorrect setting could prove costly.

As I get more into the maintenance of my bike I proabably will invest in one but, after taking all this advice on board, I think I'd use it with caution.