In the market for a new torque wrench for DIY jobs on my vehicles. Anyone have a recommendation that won't break the bank but offers good quality?

 

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I went through replacing the EGR cooler core in my 6.7 not too long ago and bought one of these:
https://www.tooltopia.com/mountain-16200.aspx

It works. I am not sure of the overall quality, but for as much as I will need to use it the tool appears adequate.

What you need to define first is what torque range you need. If you are torquing lug nuts, suspension, and drivetrain components the above torque wrench is way too light. If you are torquing manifold bolts under the hood a heavy torque wrench for lug nuts is too heavy and won't dial down to the lighter torques.

I am looking for a heavier torque wrench myself.

 

Hi,
If you're not going to use it a lot, you might go for a 'beam style'. If you don't abuse it, it will stay accurate. Clicker types apparently do not.

Sears is selling their Craftsman versions (1/2 and 3/8 models ) for 20 bucks or so apiece. I have some older ones, and they work fine for as little as I use them.
If you still have a Sears nearby you could check them out. There were some complaints on their website that they've cheapened them up -- always possible.
They do have clicker versions as well.

hj

 

This is what I ended up ordering - 25-250ft-lb range, 1/2" drive:
https://www.tooltopia.com/mountain-16250.aspx

Lug nuts on 3/4-1 ton Fords is in the 150-165ft-lb range as best I can tell. The suspension and steering parts I am working with this round are between 100-150ft-lb, if I recall correctly. I will detail the specs of course. So the 25-250ft-lb range has me covered.

Of note - the other torque wrench I have goes up to 200in-lb. That converts to about 16ft-lb. So I have a gap between 16-25. Oh well. I wanted one that went up a bit higher than covered the 16-25 range.

 

Looks like I am out of my league on one of the bolts... 406 ft-lbs. Yikes!

Check the specs for the parts you are working with to see what numbers you come up with. Looks like I have everything covered except for the one bolt in the range on the wrench I got.

 

Wow -- possibly you could rent one, or maybe find a local shop that does that kind of stuff to do the final on that one. Sounds like it might take the "mother of all torque wrenches."

Also, there's at least one guy who normally stops by the general auto and general non auto -- has his own shop -IIRC. His name is Tom and his username is tjc transport. Anyway, you might try sending him a PM

hj

 

Electronic digital torque adapters are available to day and IMHO, will eventually put torque wrenches in the pasture as you can get a really good quality one with a very broad range (reading) ….. like this one...

 

Good deal. I have seen similar devices before. That is a neat concept. I asked a long-time mechanic buddy of mine about these a few years ago and his suggestion was to stay away from them and to get a proper torque wrench. I forget what the reasoning was now, but that has stuck with me.

As technology improves I can certainly see these torque adapters being a better idea.

At some point if I can find one of those I can pair with my long (40" or longer) 3/4" drive ratchet that would be a slam dunk of a combination. The ratchet is replacing my purposes of using a breaker bar - and is plenty long enough to not need a pipe extension on a breaker bar. Torque measurements way up there get expensive fast. If there was a way to get a torque adapter that would work up to some heavy torques (1000-1400ft-lbs or so) that would be awesome. Conventional torque wrenches that go up real high like that, even less expensive ones, are $500-1000.