I bought a socket (7/8" deep well) from NAPA many moons ago to do tire rotations at home. It's been used maybe twice, and has had a comfy home in the back of my toolbox, making sure all the Allen wrenches it resides with keep in line and don't get too rowdy.

I bought new tires, which came with free rotations, so the socket never got used.

I decided to check the torque on my lug nuts today, pulled out my neat-o mosquit-o torque wrench, and I snapped the socket! I got all but one tire torqued correctly (to 155 lb/ft), and it cracked on me. I took it back to NAPA, and they gave me a new socket no charge.

Well, I go back home, happy as a dog because I have a shiny new socket to keep watch over my Allen wrenches. I get back to torquing the last set of lug nuts, and *CRACK*, the new one snapped!!

So off I go back to NAPA, and repeat the process over again. Thrid socket snapped too.

I'm going to get ANOTHER new (free) socket, and pony up and buy an impact socket.

I thought regular run-of-the-mill sockets were fine to use with all hand tools, and would only start failing with impacts? Someone want to shed some light on the topic??

 

is this a 12pt socket? I think they are a little more prone to cracking.
have not cracked a socket but snapped a ratchet handle off before.

 

Nope, six point.

Now that I think about it, there is another deep well socket in my toolbox that is cracked as well!! Don't remember the size, but it's a deep well socket. . .maybe the deep well as something to do with it??

 

I'm surprised you broke three. I've never broke any of my sockets, Craftsman, and I've jumped on a 1/2" drive breaker bar to get up to 150++ torque or to break loose. I've even used a regular 15mm deep well socket from True Value on a 1/2" impact and got away with it. (not a normal practice for me but impact socket was not available at store.)

You should not need an impact socket for this but it would work. For impacts I have been using cheap china ones for years, occasional use, with no problems. You can get an entire set for the price of two Craftsman impact sockets.

 

It kinda depends. If you've got a cheap chinese socket, it might not take as much as a snap on or craftsman. I have personally stuck a craftsman spark plug socket on a bolt, attached a 4 foot breaker to it and jumped on it, without it breaking. Snapped off the bolt. And I weigh 180 lbs.

 

I have broken my fair share of sockets and most of them have been deep’s. A lot of the hand tools are designed with a thin wall so that the socket can get into tight spaces.

If while using a torque wrench, and the socket end of the operation is not supported, it will twist the socket on the nut sideways of if its rational axis. Deep well sockets just make this worse, and @ 155ft/lb’s I would imagine that most of the operator’s attention would be on the handle end of the wrench. When torque at155ft/lb’s is applied to the lug nut, at the far end of the socket and it is being pulled off of its axis in the process, now we have two different forces working the thin wall socket to its max.

When working with lug nuts it is best to have a thick wall socket or impact socket for the job to handle the torque that happens in both directions while torque is being applied with a torque wrench.

Da’Moose

 

Nice post Moose,

I heard the other day that when using high torque, to put a bottle jack under the socket and jack it up to cradle the socket, then you can lay on the handle for all your worth. I havn't tried it yet, my lugs only get tightened to 95 lb/ft.

 

Have recently cracked two Craftsman impact sockets using an extension and 24 inch breaker bar; extension was supported by a jack. This was trying to remove a bolt on a harmonic balancer.

 

I've used an off brand 30mm deep well hub nut socket to remove head bolts on an industrial engine (275 ft/lbs + 90 degrees) hooked up to a Ingersol Rand Titanium impact wrench at full load. Side loading will defenitly break one as will the wrong size. Surprizingly the impacts I bought at Harbor Frieght have held up real well.

 

Just for comparison, I have used an Ingersol (sp?) air torque wrench to tighten the crab nuts on locomotive diesel engines. The 3" socket, 1" drive, is tightened to 1600 ft/lbs. Never saw (or heard of) one break. These were Wright brand sockets.

 

I just used cheap chinese sockets to to torque I-beam/radius arm bolts to 300ft lbs and they didn't crack

Napa Evercraft tools are the some of the worst overpriced imported junk ever made. not even up to Harbor Freight/Pittsburg standards.

 

i have used the cheap chinese impact sockets no problems but the craftsman stuff i break.

 

Once again back to the “Thin Wall Sockets”, we pay more money for the thin wall stuff and less for the thick walled stuff, WHY?

The thin walled socket is of more use in more places, it takes more quality control to manufacture, and it has a marketing staff behind it.

The thick walled socket is cheap to make, less quality control more room for error, and it has no marketing support to speak of.

It all depends on what we want out of our tools, I myself like a finer tool that is of high quality and will cause me less strife and cuts. On the down side of this is, if I let the tool down because I have not done my part and used it incorrectly, it will break. In High School we had films in shop about this guy who would scare the crap out of the toughest Snap-On, Mac, Matco, Craftsman, and so on, tool guys. Primitive Pete was his name and destroying tools was his game. Like any thing in life, tools are meant to be used in a way that is helpful to man and not to be self destructive.

IF YOU FIND THAT YOU ARE BREAKING A TOOL OVER AND OVER AGAIN, GET THE RIGHT TOOL FOR THE JOB!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Da’Moose

 

da'Moose has the answer, for sure!
The more I think about it, the more I realize that the socket is twisting on the nut, hence cracking when I bear down on it. I need to use a deep well with an extension to get the handle of the torque wrench to clear the tire. Good observation!

b2_tim,
Good tip on the bottle jack, woulda never thunk it!

 

Where did you get the specs for your lug nuts? Mine only torque to 90-95 ft/lbs
SD