Torque wrench calibration went sideways on me this morning

I used to just trust my old Craftsman clicker for years never got it checked figured it was fine till I torqued a cylinder head on a Cessna 172 and the bolts felt way too tight to spec. Pulled out a loaner from the shop down the street and my old wrench was off by 8 ft-lbs at 40. Anyone else ever get burned by a wrench you thought was good?

3 comments

3 Comments

diana1557d agoMost Upvoted

Getting it checked regularly is key. After I found mine was 10 ft-lbs off on a transmission bell housing, I bought a beam style as a backup just to double check my clicker every few months. Also, if you drop a clicker even once, send it in for calibration. The internal springs can shift and mess with the reading. Some shops will do it for like 15 bucks which beats buying a whole new Snap-On.

dakota_murphy9010d ago

Man that sucks. I'd be pissed if my wrench was that far off.

hollyramirez10d ago

Oh man, @dakota_murphy90 I hear you on being angry about that. I was pretty steamed myself when I found out mine was off. It really makes you wonder how many other jobs I did over the years that were wrong. I had a head bolt strip out on a Ford 302 once because I probably over torqued it with that same bad wrench. Cost me a lot of time and money to fix that mistake. Now I get my stuff checked every six months at the local tool repair shop. It's a pain but cheaper than buying new parts or worse.