Triumphrat

aeycue · 07-11-2006

how important is it to use a torque wrench? I've had my front wheel off a few times and tightened everything back up with no problems.. not to mention the other 4 bikes I've worked on in the past 10 years. I'm no mechanic, I've picked up everything mostly on my own, and have never dealt with specific torque values when tightening things back up..
I'm going to put some gaiters on this week and I see a lot of posts on this mention the torque wrench.. Can I just snug things up, or should I be worried about exact specs?

-Adam

Slinky · 07-12-2006

Wheel spimdles are one area where I would say a torque wrench is essential. Too much and you put a side load on the bearings, too little and your wheel falls off.

Using a torque wrench is a good habit to get into. If it saves you one stripped thread it's worth it.

jimmyj900 · 07-12-2006

There are three primary lines of thought on the use of torque wrenches.

One is that the engineers who designed the bike actually know what they're doing and define torque values in accordance with the structural properties of the materials involved.

The second line of thought is that engineers don't know shi*t and 'real men don't need torque wrenches.'

The third line of thought is "Duuuuh. Wassa tork rench?"

If you reject the first approach, could you please post a description of your bike and the VIN number so everybody here knows to avoid it when you sell it because 'stuff keeps breaking'? :-D

Jim

Rincewind · 07-12-2006

One thing to remember when buying a torque wrench - get one that has NM's. I've got one that's in ft-lb's, and I'm always having to convert the NM specs found in the manuals.

:hammer:

Tre900 · 07-12-2006

Oh yeah, and here's another thing I found out the hard way about a Tourqe Wrench...they don't all go up to the same nm!

There's a medium sized one that goes to lets say 150ft/lbs (also has NM)

and then a bigger one that goes up to 250ft/lbs.

Well when I was buying mine I thought: "man, its only a bike, I'm not working on a fire truck or anything so I'll just need the smaller one".

Totally wrong!! Frame and engine bolts, suspension need heavy lbs your fork and riser bolts need lower.

I say get the big one the first time around, its more money but better then having to buy two like my dumb a$$.

[ This message was edited by: Tre900 on 2006-07-12 08:57 ]

aeycue · 07-12-2006

gotcha.. thanks for the advice/info. I will go out and get a torque wrench tonight.
(and probably recheck every bolt on the bike...

)

no time like the present to learn how to do things right.

AlanFJ · 07-12-2006

It might be worth reminding new members who have the early Haynes manual for Thunderbirds, etc, that it shows the torque reading for the sump plug as 48nm, without specifying which of the sump plugs it applies to. 28nm is correct for some plugs, as my son found out the hard way. I believe later publications clarify this point.