My torque wrench clicked at 50 ft-lbs but the bolt was still loose. Found out my calibration was off by a week on the cert sticker.

I was doing a flap track fairing install on a 737 at the hangar in Charlotte last Thursday. Set my Snap-on torque wrench to 50 ft-lbs like the manual says, got my click, moved on. Finished the job and the lead mechanic checked my work with his own wrench. He gave me this look and said try it again. My bolt turned another quarter turn before it clicked. Turns out my calibration cert expired 7 days ago and I didnt even check the sticker. I never thought a week could make that big a difference on a tool sitting in a box. Now I am paranoid about every torque spec I hit. Anyone else had a tool go bad right after the cert ran out?

2 comments

2 Comments

jade5171mo ago

Man I had a digital torque adapter go haywire once and it scared me straight.

uma_williams1mo ago

Calibration cert dates are guidelines but a week old tool usually doesn't drift that far that fast unless it took a hit or got dropped. Maybe your wrench had a problem building up before the cert expired and nobody caught it. Worth checking if the tool got banged around in transit or storage rather than blaming the sticker.