UserX826

Rebuilding a y7 this week.. I was wondering if anyone knew the lbs for the bolts. Tried searching but only found a rough idea, and i've never had to use a torque wrench before.. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

vtecb18c

what bolts?? the head studs?? if so its 70ft lbs with moly lube, an about 75-80 ft lbs with redular motor oil...wow you never used a torque wrench...umm well its pretty cut and dry...just tighten the bolt til its snig, than tighten it to specs...with head studs obviously have to be torqued in a certain order(im not sure which order on a d series) and you need to go around them the first time at about 55 ft lbs than snug them to 70ft lbs with moly and 75-80 with reg motor oil( im not 100% on the reg motor oil so i gave you a close numbers to what its supposed to be)

PerryRT

Well..... the method to physically use a torque wrench depends on what kind of torque wrench you're talking about.

There are three basic types:

1) long ones with a pointer and a scale - these are called deflecting beam wrenches. Usually the least accurate, but also the cheapest. They typically come with a "loose" handle (attached to the shaft at one point) - this is to get you to focus the force on one point (if you're pulling off center, the handle will rotate to touch the shaft.) All you do is pull until the pointer deflects to the number you want.

2) mechanical or electronic ones with a dial or indicator. Dial indicator types are usually the MOST accurate, but they're pretty expensive and hard to find. With these, all you do is pull steadily until the number you need is showing (or the light/buzzer goes off - depends on model).

3) The most common type involve a shaft with a handle the screws into the shaft - these are called "click" type, commonly, although you'll sometimes see them called "micrometer" wrenches. These all pretty much work the same way. Screw in the handle to the appropriate torque, then pull until you hear an audible click.

A few tips:

1) Never add a cheater bar to a torque wrench. It adds length, increasing the force.

2) Don't use a torque wrench to spin on a nut - use a regular wrench to get it snugged up, then change to the torque wrench. Also, don't use a torque wrench to loosen a nut.

3) If you need to use extensions with a torque wrench, use the shortest and highest quality ones you have. If you're using a crow's foot or dogbone, use it perpendicular to the axis of the shaft, not parallel (again, like the cheater bar, you're changing the lever length).

4) Try not to drop it....

Other than that, it should be easy - good luck!

Syndacate

It doesn't increase force, the force is constant. It actually just adds to the moment arm, which results in more torque on the axis of rotation (the bolt).

Though that's an obvious technicality that I just picked up on...

Other than that, read what PerryRT said, those are the rules I follow. Never thought about that with crows feet though...but then again, I never used a crows foot with a torque wrench..

PerryRT

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Syndacate &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">It doesn't increase force, the force is constant. It actually just adds to the moment arm, which results in more torque on the axis of rotation (the bolt).
</TD></TR></TABLE>

Duh. What he said. Torque, not force. *headdesk* Sorry 'bout that.

Also, I got in a BIG argument about this at work yesterday when we got to talking about (nothing like bringing up torque wrenches in a room full of aircraft mechanics! ) Some folks say that the beam wrenches are the MOST accurate, as they are the least likely to suffer from mechanical failure (no moving parts and all.) There's some backup for this on the internet, and the older and wiser mechanics patiently explained to me that the reason they're not used as much is that it's far easier to exceed your set torque with a beam style - for one, you've got parallax error to deal with, and also, unlike the "clicker" style, the torque on the fastener doesn't release when the setpoint is reached...so if you're not paying attention - well, you get the idea.

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Syndacate &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Other than that, read what PerryRT said, those are the rules I follow. Never thought about that with crows feet though...but then again, I never used a crows foot with a torque wrench..</TD></TR></TABLE>

Actually, I do do that. Not a lot, but from time to time. The most common place would be fastening something to a flange where you've got interference to deal with "above" the fastener head.You can use the dog bone or crows foot to get out to the side of it, rather than trying to get a socket down over it. Typical automotive applications? Uhhhh... Waterpump? Some brake stuff? Drive shafts/U-joint flanges? Can't think of any specific Honda aps at the moment, but it's all about options some days anyway.

Oh, and two more tips.

First, in aviation, we calibrate torque wrenches regularly (some places as often as every month!) I honestly don't think they need to be done that often, but they DO drift out of cal over time. If I was getting ready to do a major engine swap or something like that, I might try to find a local place that would run my wrenches (I actually have 4, three click and one beam) through. I think the last time I did that it cost me...$12/wrench? Cheap insurance.

and

Second - on click-type torque wrenches,never store the wrench with it set to a torque. Always back off the tension on the dial/shaft before putting it away. (There's springs involved, and springs stretch....and then the calibration drifts.)

Endo-land

For automotive applications, do you really need both a 1/2" and 3/8" torque wrenches? Is there any engine work that needs the higher torque values of the 1/2" ones? These will probably be the next tools for the collection. How about brands also, is craftsman ok, Ive been thinking micro or digi torq.

PerryRT

Honestly, I don't know about the Digitorque. I've not used strain-gage units enough to be able to say. I can tell you this about brands on torque wrenches, though.

I used to be the Director of Quality for a small company that flew aircraft for the military. We had about 60 torque wrenches of various sizes and mfgs. We had a 6-month calibration check requirement, and part of my job was to track failures. We usually had about a 10-15% failure rate in any given year (failure doesn't mean broke, just means "had to be adjusted to get back into calibration") and about a 5% actual "broke" rate. However, the wrenches we owned that were made by a company called Sturtevant-Richmont. In the six years I was there and the 5 years before that I had records for, I could only find 2 cases where a S-R wrench had to be adjusted and one where it had actually broken (i.e. couldn't be fixed) - and these were used a lot.

But they're like 250-350 dollars a wrench. Ya get what ya pay for. You can get them from MSC.

Honestly, I've always liked Proto. Decent enough wrench for the money (about 100-200 a copy.)

Craftsman is never a bad choice, and cheaper, but I've heard from a friend that Craftsman torque wrenches are NOT covered by their standard "fix-it-for-life" warranty. Too many moving parts, I guess.

Snap-On. Matco. MAC are the other three kind I've used, I think. In general, you can't go wrong with buying tools from a quality source. May not be cheap, but it will usually be good.

Honestly, though, we've veered from "what I know" to "what I think". Asking a mechanic about tools is always an emotionally charged topic. We drool a lot, too...


Unfortunately, I can't help much with the other part of your question - a quick meander through the service manual I have appeared to have values up to 120 N-M at the flywheel, which is 89 Ft-lbs or close enough (divide by 1.35), but a lot of the standard torques look like 10-12 Nm... that's not an exhaustive search by any means, and I'm a noob Honda owner, so I wouldn't take that too seriously.

I CAN tell you this. Generally, you shouldn't use a torque wrench for a value of less than 25% of the highest rating. (some also say "...or more than 90% of the rated value" too.)

The point to that is you probably need at least two to complete cover the range from 0-120 NM. In my personal toolbox I have three, a Snap-on clicker in 1/4 for 0-200 in-lbs, a Proto 3/8 up to 75 ft-lbs, and a 1/2 beam type up to 150 ft-lbs that I use only rarely. (I think that one's a Craftsman, actually.) In Newton-meters, that's 22.5 Nm, 101 Nm, and 202 Nm, which generally overlaps enough to work OK for me.

Good luck!