Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Torque wrench and timing light recommendations

What do you guys use ?

I can recommended an specific brands but I would suggest spending as much as you can on the Torque Wrench and go to Harber Frieght and get a timing light. The torque of bolts are critical and you get what you pay for.

Snap on click type torque wrenches.

Torque wrench?

We use Tohnici ( japan) and Belknap ( usa) at work. They get verified monthly.

Set torque. Though they make adjustable.



For [bleep] and giggles.. guy brought in a HF adjustable torque wrench. It verified within tolerance. +/- 3%.

OTC tools on both. Summit Racing is a good place to purchase.

Link

Phil

Gearwrench! I have a 1/2", 3/8" and just purchased a 1/4". So far so good. I don't use these professionally but have torqued many wheels, replaced head gaskets so everything associated with that plus front differential, cv axles and everything else on the front end! Most of the contractors were I work are using Tekton.

HF torque wrench brand...forget the name. Project Farm did a great video on torque wrenches so I went with his recommendations.

Several years ago some auto magazine (maybe Hot Rod) tested several brands and Harbor Freight was the most accurate and repeatable. Probably acceptable for a hobbyist. Regular calibration should be done but is sometimes expensive.

Snap-On torque wrench- - - - -plenty of good condition used ones on Evil-Bay. Get a used one checked for calibration before you use it. An Innova digital timing light with the tachometer and delay flash for checking timing advance is the one I use on the race engines I build.

I have click-style from Craftsman and Snap-On. But you can get good results from a Craftsman beam style if you are on a budget.

I use click type Snap Ons... 1/2, 3/8 drives, Also an inch lbs unit... Found new or nearly new ones on ebay for cheap... I test their accuracy on my machinist's friends gauge before torqueing something important... My timing light is a Snap On digital dial back type with a built in tachometer... This allows me to check and adjust the mechanical advance curve by the RPM it starts and stops advancing, And also check how much vac advance is present... Other brands have the same features... IMO, It's the only way to fly for performance tuning on old school distributor equipped engines...

Has anybody ever had a mechanical failure on anything that can be traced back to a budget or even no torque wrench? Spend accordingly.

Most failures are from over tightening, without the use of a good torque wrench.

Phil

I will through this out. If you want to get a true reading and know how the bolt or nut is torqued down you want a beam torque wrench. With a beam torque wrench you not only know the torque, but how it got there. If you are torquing a bolt and as you are watching the beam the torgue will build in a fluid motion. If you are torquing the bolt and you see the beam stall and begin to climb again then the bolt has prematurely stretched and is no good. Most people think the Beams are junk, but I use the beams for precision work.