Ok, I am inexperienced by all aspects of the word. I love to take on projects that are more than i can handle though, so..

I am installing the new head on my 300, and am torqueing down the bolts according to the chiltons. I am just not feeling the click in the clicker torque wrench. Is there some trick to it? Can I just torque them down hard? Will somethingf bad happen if I just crank on these bolts?

Thanks,

Josh Andersen
'66 F-100 (forsale)
'68 Vanette
'97 Explorer

 

When you get to the "click" it should be fairly obvious. One thing to check is that the wrench isn't stuck in the click position. I have one torque wrench that tends to stick in the clicked position from time to time, which really screws things up. Make sure yours isn't doing the same. Set your torque wrench to 100 ft-lbs and torque some of your lug nuts so you can feel what the click is like.

If I remember correctly these torque in three steps: 55ft-lbs, 65, then 75-85 on the final pass. That is alot of torque to generate, especially when you're standing straight up and reaching out over the side of the truck. You probably just havn't got enough leverage to get to that torque very easily. I know it's easy to put 100 ft-lbs on a lug nut, but you can get right over the wrench and get some leverage and pull with your whole body. When you're not right over the wrench you can only use your arms. I replaced a head on a 2001 Camaro SS last week and it torqued to roughly 65 ft-lbs. It was a challenge to get to that torque on some of the bolts and I'm fairly large.