When you don't trust your torque wrench

this reminds me I probably should invest in a higher quality torque 3/8" wrench. There are times when mine seems to be doing what Carl first described and I usually back the torque down to a point where i get a comfortable click & then move it up in increments from there.
 
Yea, I would normally do that but my 1/2" drive torque wrench is not much use at 31 and I'm not sure it reads much lower. I do need to get a 3/8" version.
 
When I started customizing motorcycles several years back I finally had to buy a small 1/4" drive "inch pound" torque wrench. For such low torque values I'd never bothered using a torque wrench before. But with the soft materials used on bikes and their propensity to vibrate things loose I felt better using one.
 
oh, oops, I type-o'd above. I meant my 1/2" drive torque is the one I end up sometimes moving up in increments to make sure I am finding the clicks...that way I guess I get my arm & the wrench somewhat calibrated & I know to trust the feel of it if I don't get a click when I am ready for it.

That said, smaller ones are handy. Starting building bicycles about 10 years ago, I ended up getting an array of different tools & the 1/4" inch-lb wrench is one of them. Every little part has a torque spec on a higher end bike and generally (I guess it's the same with anything) it's based on the size of the bolt. One nice thing a lot of bicycle parts do is have the torque spec printed on the part.
 
I lost them all (and the halfshaft falled on the road) on a long trip, in the middle of nowhere. Now, I torqued them and loctite them.
 
Nothing like a bad experience to teach you something. I had a rear wheel come off my 124 sedan on the highway and now I NEVER EVER drive a car without torqueing wheel lug bolts/nuts when the wheels have been removed. By the way, brake rotors make great emergency wheels when the roadwheel/tire disassociates itself from a car.
 
That was mechanic advice given to me many years ago by an old chronic drunk who used to buy beer for us when we were far too young & young looking to do it on our own. As he described, by the 4th wheel, he'd be pretty lit, so after losing a wheel once on the test drive he adopted the policy of always torquing the bolts as soon as you put the wheel on. You definitely shouldn't be losing a wheel when you're driving drunk, of course! I adopted that & generally do the same for any part unless a loose fit is part of the installation sequence.
 
I've always wondered what kind of person it was when I see a car on the side of the road with a wheel missing and sitting on the rotor. Now I know, Carl.
 
The key is once the wheel comes adrift and passes you, always keep your eye on where that wheel goes since you will need to find it...the car, surprisingly will be just fine till you slow down enough to pull to the side of the road. I was on an exit ramp but still doing about 50 and the car was easy to control. All I had to do for "repairs" was to lightly dress the rotor with a file on it's outer diameter.
 
The secret to driving when a rear wheel comes off is do not hit the brakes hard. Coasting is your friend. You can also steal a lug bolt from each of the other 3 wheels and put the run away wheel back on to drive home. Spiders are really well balanced.
 
carl said:
will be just fine till you slow down
Click to expand...
That reminds me of the time I was heading to the river towing my jet skis, following a buddy towing his skis behind his truck. He had a very small trailer with a solid (plywood) platform bed and two skis on it. When a wheel came off his trailer (single axle, small wheel type) he did not even realize it because the air under the trailer's platform kept the trailer off the road as long as he was doing 70 MPH. I radioed him (this was before cell phones existed) to tell him he had lost a wheel. When he slowed down the trailer dropped to the ground on that side. We laughed that he could have kept going all the way to the river if he did not slow down.
 
See how wonderful this forum is, everyday the old farts get to relive fun incidents in their long ago past....good buddy.
 
that's the point, back then in your life nothing was important...by today's reckoning.
 
Do new cars have "lost a wheel" idiot light? Would a millennial on their phone even notice if they lost a wheel? Ever try to loosen the lug nuts/bolts on your car after a mechanic had worked on your car? Ever wonder why I have not been banned from this forum?
 
Ohh, great idea Carl...a app for cell phones to notify the millennials that they have just lost a wheel on their car.
 
You don't think a Millenial would change their own tire, do you? Nobody to sue when it falls off.
 
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