serious

i keep seeing eletric impact wrenchs for about $30-$40 that claim to go up to 240 ft/lbs torque. since i can't afford a compressor with a nice impact wrench right now, it seems like this might be a good compromise to help speed up work, even if i 'd still need to use the old breaker bar every once in a while. any thoughts? anyone use them?

Spade

Read closer. They claim INCH/LBS Not Ft/lbs

Shawn C

iTrader: (1)

ive used really good electric impacts and shitty ones, too. youre gonna pay a lot for a good one, but ive got an 18v, cordless snap-on impact that works great. 300 bucks. but i ended up getting a compressor and an air one. i like the air one a lot better. if youre gonna work on cars, get air. for now if i was you, i wouldnt waste 40 or 50 bucks, id try to just rent a good one. or save up.

serious

i read closer. it's still ft/lbs.

Kataku2K3

I've seen ones before around that rating ~240ft/lbs. or so but never for that cheap... I found a Craftsman one for ~$150 and debated getting it... They just don't seem to have the power of a standard compressed air impact wrench... What brand are you looking into??? Here's the one I was looking at awhile back... http://www.sears.com/sr/product/summ...id=00927997000

serious

ebay special. if you do a search on ebay for "electric impact wrench" you'll find them. a lot of them

Shawn C

iTrader: (1)

dont believe the torque rating. it cant be true cause the cheap plug-in one i had ( 90 bucks) said like 180 ft/lbs, but it wouldnt even break loose my lugnuts. i put them on by hand, too and im a skinny ****. so dont believe the hype. rent a good one or borrow/buy a compressor/ air impact

Aron Parsons

definetly not the same as an air one, but I've used a high-level Craftsman electric impact and every bolt it encountered it broke loose ~~> although not as quickly as a air impact, maybe a second or two longer, but no biggie. this was on some rusted suspension bolts, and my crank pulley (just to see). i'd save the money though, it didn't do anything a nice 3ft breaker bar couldn't handle.

Kataku2K3

That's good to know.... I may invest in one later on but I'm not worried right now... I would just use it for times when I don't want to wait fot the air compressor to charge or maybe at the track... I just wanted it for the harder **** that normally takes a little longer to get off by hand by urself... ie the crank pulley, etc.. Latez

non-VTEC

i have a electric impact gun. it's plenty strong to remove the lug nuts and other big nuts and bolts........comes in handy especially since i dont have the paitence to loosen things by hand anymore.

it's deffinatly not as strong as my air gun but it's much simpler to plug in the electric gun then waiting for the air comressor to fill up.........

it's good for zipping wheels on and off......thats about it.......it's to big and heavy to manover around inside the engine compartment or under the car....

worth the 120 bucks i paid for it.....but spend the extra 500 for a good air compressor and impact gun as well......

salbaje

i have used it many times on doing swaps. But if you have a small area to work on that is not the tool to use as they are pretty big. I also get lazy when i use that coz i end up depending on it.

LudemanDan

I swap my wheelset every time I go autoxing, and then I swap back. Here's what I do:
I still use the good ol' torque wrench to break and secure the lug nuts. But I bought a cheap electric drill just to spin them on and off. I'm happy so far. I don't mind the manual part, there's some comfort in reading the torque every time you fasten a lugnut. Besides, I can carry the torque wrench around wherever I go and check the lugnuts after driving on them for awhile.
Oh, and a cheap beam-type torque wrench does the trick for this just fine.
-Dan

serious

dude, you use your torque wrench as a breaker?

LudemanDan

Well by that, I mean to loosen them up so the drill can get them off. In other words, break them free. They usually come off at less than 80lbs of torque.

serious

yes, i understood what you meant. unless you don't mind ruining the torque wrench you should never, ever break bolts loose using one. if you check with pretty much any torque wrench manufacturer, they'll tell you that a big no no, and will rapidly move your wrench out of calibration, and, at worst, will break your wrench.

LudemanDan

Let me mention again something you may have missed...
Are you familiar with this type of torque wrench? It is just a beam- no mechanisms, no calibration, no nothing. Mine is a nice one, and it was <$30 at Sears. I was skeptical at first, but I really like it now.
-Dan

serious

sorry dude, i totally missed that part. yeah, breaking a bolt shouldn't hurt a beam type wrench.

LudemanDan

And neither should letting it knock against your trunk panels while you're tearing around.
It's all good.

BSQ

I have owned (for 2 days) the Craftsman electric impact. I bought it after I could not break loose the rear lower shock bolt with a breaker bar. I went to Sears and bought the their electric impact and brought it home to see if it would be break loose the stubborn bolt. After a few reverse/forward/reverse/forward attempts on the bolt is finally came loose. The only thing bad about the Sears electric impact was the price (~$150), so I returned it the following day.

But, the I saw an identical electric impact wrench at Harbor Freight. It looked identical, it had the same specs and it was ~$90 less than the Craftsman. So I bought it and it has been outstanding for the last 3 years that I have owned it. It has broken loose every bolt that I have ever needed to loosen and it is extemely handy when rotating wheels. I highly recommend it . Here is a direct link to it: http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=45252

Here is picture:


Harbor Freight also sells a DeWalt model which is identical ( http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...temnumber=1290 ) to the one I bought, but it cost $170.

Here is a picture for comparision to the one above:

Sonny

I have the Harbor Freight electric wrench. It works fine for up to about 100 ft lbs of torque, but I don't really recommend getting one.

A good impact wrench will "impact" with many "short and fast" impacts. The electric one that I have (Chicago Electric) does impacts that are "long and far apart". I've broken several impact grade sockets using this wrench. The same sockets have never had a problem with twice the amount of force from my Ingersoll-Rand pneumatic wrench.

I hope that makes sense.

Sonny