Working on a Citation in Wichita showed me why torque wrenches are not just for big bolts

I was doing a simple flap cable change last month and a guy next to me said 'that's tight enough' by hand. I used my 1/4 inch torque wrench anyway and found it was 30 inch-pounds under spec. That little cable could have worn out way too fast. How many of you actually torque every single thing, even the small stuff?

4 comments

4 Comments

william_garcia2mo agoMost Upvoted

Torqued a simple oil drain plug last week and found it was 15 foot-pounds over.

janah832mo ago

Wait, did you mean inch-pounds? Because 15 foot-pounds over on a drain plug seems like a crazy huge amount. Most specs I've seen are only like 18-25 foot-pounds total.

torres.thea2mo ago

Oh man, that's definitely foot-pounds. I've seen guys at the shop absolutely crank them down with an impact gun. Stripped threads are a real pain to fix, way worse than a slow drip.

mia7001mo ago

Dude @william_garcia probably just checked it by feel and called it close enough. I had the same thing happen on my old truck's skid plate bolts. Ended up grabbing a cheap torque wrench from Harbor Freight and just reset everything to spec. Fixed the leak right up, no more guessing. That 15 over is definitely foot-pounds though, no way an inch-pound wrench would let you crank that far without snapping something.