Can you teach me more about lug bolts & related tire tools?

These telescopic bars have a normal 1/2 inch square drive that any 1/2 drive socket can fit into. You don't have to use the socket it comes with.

It's not a torque wrench - its just a wrench with a telescopic handle that is at least twice as long as that which normally comes with the car kit. It gives you much more leverage when trying to free the nut. It's the same principle of adding a scaffolding over over an existing wrench bar to make it longer.

It you added an extension tube to the end of a normal click type torque wrench to make the handle twice as long and you applied your pressure to the end this extension wouldn't the torque wrench still click at the correct torque?

Reply to
alan_m
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Oh. Thanks. That's good because any decent toolbox has a set of 1/4", 3/8", and 1/2" metric and SAE sockets.

Hmmmm... I just realized that those socket sizes are in SAE units, and not in metric units.

Do the 4-sided openings in European sockets conform to the same standard

1/4", 3/8", and 1/2" sizes we use in America? Or do the Europeans use a metric sized drive square?

Oh. I see. Yes. We all have used a pipe in times of need, to extend our leverage. Most of us have pretty long "breaker bars" though, which is what I would use if I needed the torque to remove a bolt.

It would as long as the only point of that loosely fitting extension tube touching the torque wrench were at the place that you would have put your hand on the torque wrench.

I guess if you put a tightly fitting extension tube over the torque wrench of a length that doubles the torque wrench length, then you'd get a "reading" of (half? double?) on the torque wrench.

Let me think about that.... (would it be double or half?).

Upon a few moments of circumspection, I'm not sure, but I think you'd get a reading that is half what it actually is??????

Reply to
ultred ragnusen

Different picture

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Reply to
alan_m

Yep, standard 1/4, 3/8 and 1/2 square drives which can be used with both imperial and metric hex/12 point sockets.

You can place you hands on any part of a click type torque wrench to get it to work correctly.

No, the end of the torque wrench would move exactly the same distance. The end of the extension would move by twice the distance as the end of the torque wrench.

Reply to
alan_m

I can see your point, but that isn't what DP was claiming. He said "the tread beds in according to the suspension type on each wheel", something I have never heard of.

I have also seen conflicting rules about where you put your new tyres. Some articles say rears as loss of grip on the rear will have a greater effect on car control, others say the fronts for other reasons. So much crap is said without any evidence of which is best.

The classical reason for rotating tyres is where geometry is suspect and consequent increase in wear. Some cars inherently wear tyres on the outside, others on the inside.

Reply to
Fredxx

In the past I've read articles produced by some of the more reputable tyre manufactures and they recommended that on a FRONT wheel drive car the better tyres (the ones with most tread/grip) should be fitted to the rear.

Reply to
alan_m

That's strange that Europeans use a half-metric half-what-you-call-Imperial standard of units.

To us, Imperial is a strange word, where it often means Imperial Japan or Imperial British (meaning before WWII in our vernacular), but we never use the word "imperial" in terms of measurement units (at least I don't).

I have seen "imperial gallons" where I have to ask what they are, since we just have gallons and liters and nothing else (similarly with regular tons and long tons I guess).

I guess, since the US is anything but imperial, that the term must be so old as to predate the SAE, and to relate to Imperial British units?

I thought all torque wrenches needed your hand in a certain given spot?

OK. I'm confused because I have a dial-type wrench which has a pin which certainly is to prevent you from putting force at any other point for this reason alone....

Reply to
ultred ragnusen

If my car's service warning light comes on, I remove the bulb. If the car makes a smell, a noise, or fails to run properly, THEN I get it serviced.

Reply to
James Wilkinson Sword

Really, you seriously need to get a life.

[snip boring s**te]
Reply to
James Wilkinson Sword

They measure torque at the head of the wrench, not the end of the handle. Take a wrench with a 2 foot handle. Say it takes 50 pounds of force at the end of the handle to loosen a nut. Take a wrench with a 4 foot handle. It will take 25 pounds of force at the end of the that one's handle to loosen the same nut. That's why cheater pipes work.

Reply to
Dean Hoffman

Classic beam scale torque wrenches do indeed rely on a single point load which is why the handle has a pivot pin. Your comments are correct for click wrenches.

Reply to
AMuzi

Not necessarily the rest of Europe but the UK.

I'm now retired and during my schooling it was mainly the metric system that was taught.

In the UK we still use a imperial units for some items. Beer in pubs is sold in pints and not litres. Vehicle speed and road signs are still in miles and not kilometres. Manufactures/dealers still refer to petrol consumption in miles per gallon even though petrol has been sold by the litre for 3 decades or more.

I was an engineer by profession and only used metric my whole working life for the job.

Some non-metric items are throwback to history - they have been that way for hundreds of years and haven't changed.

We only say gallons BUT when talking to the ex-colonies we have to say 'Imperial' because your pints and gallons are different from ours.

1 imperial (UK) pint = 1.2 US pint 1 imperial (UK) gallon = 1.2 US gallons

There is also the tonne = 1,000 kg

Reply to
alan_m

I don't get the why if this is what you mean by beam scale torque wrench. or

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Reply to
Dean Hoffman

It applies to fwd or rwd

Reply to
MrCheerful

Oh crap. Is this myth still floating around? We're not measuring *movement*, we're measuring *torque*. Place a 100 pound weight on one end of a 5-foot long teeter-totter. How much weight do you add to the other end to balance it? Place a 100 pound weight on one end of a mile long teeter-totter. Same question. (PS: You'll get the same answer)

Back to the actual question:

3-inch extension keeps you close to the nut, unlikely to twist sideways and fall off. 16-inch extension has the possibility of pulling the socket out of alignment, maybe rounding off the nut, and scraping your knuckles (and your shiny new wrench) on the ground, UNLESS you properly support the wrench at the head end to keep it straight.
Reply to
Sanity Clause

Yep that's the style. Scale reading assumes the load is at the handle pivot pin.

Reply to
AMuzi

I show both types of torque wrenches in my original post, reproduced below.

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The "beam style" (with the black handle & red pointer) has a "pivot pin" to ensure that your force is applied at a single point of contact on the bar.

Reply to
ultred ragnusen

Do the Germans and French also use "inch" sizes for their ratchets?

I see. Like you, we only speak of "gallons", where we don't ever need to distinguish between your gallons and our gallons, I guess. :)

Reply to
ultred ragnusen

I believe it's an international standard with no metric equivalents for the "drive" side of sockets.

Reply to
alan_m

Depends how regularly you swap them.

Used by those who hope to get a new car before the original tyres wear out.

No. I tend to post about my own experience.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

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