Dirty torquer

Oh my gosh, rotating tires is an awfully dirty job. It's much dirtier than changing oil. All I did was remove one wheel cover/"hubcap" with a screwdriver, and got really dirty. Wheels don't like being clean, I suppose. (I removed the wheel cover just to be sure of the socket size needed for tomorrow's rotation and torquing.)

Went to Sears to buy a 21 mm socket for the wheel's lug nuts. My Harbor Freight 4-way lug wrench doesn't have a 21 mm socket but it does have a 13/16-inch socket, which is smaller than

21 mm but fits the lug nuts. I guess I'll use that.

Still needed a socket for the Craftsman torque wrench, though. So went to Sears. Very sad to see how rough those sockets were; they weren't smooth at all on the inside. Wasn't gonna buy that. Good price though: $4 normal size and $5 for the deep socket.

Went to AutoZone. The company's own brand DuraLast is made of Chrome Moly steel (chrome molybdenum). The Great Neck brand there was made of chrome vanadium. I asked the salesman which is stronger. He said Moly so I bought the slightly higher- priced Duralast. $5 for normal size and $7 for deep socket. Bought one of each in case the deep socket will give more clearance. Very smooth surfaces on both AutoZone's Duralast brand, and Great Neck.

The Duralast has a full unlimited warranty, guaranteed for life. Great Neck and Sears Craftsman also have some sort of lifetime warranty--don't know if it's unlimited like Duralast.

By the way, AutoZone is running a special right now: Buy one at full price and get one at half price.

I took the car to an automatic touchless

Reply to
Built_Well
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Oops, I accidenatlly posted in mid-sentence.

....I took the car to an automatic touchless car wash tonight, the LaserWash M5. I hope that will clean up the wheels a bit for tomorrow's fun.

Reply to
Built_Well

Forgot to mention that, while at Sears lookin' for a 21mm socket for the Craftsman 1/2-inch torque wrench, I spoke to a salesperson who said it's best to keep those torque wrenches set at 20 foot-pounds when not in use, instead of zero or 5 foot-pounds. He said some folks have had to return those torquers because they stopped working after having been set at their very lowest setting during storage.

I remember when I bought mine several months ago that, out of the box, it was set at 20 foot-pounds, not 5 foot-pounds or zero Newton-meters.

Those Craftsman torque wrenches are currently on sale again for $60, regular $80.

Reply to
Built_Well

Reply to
Ray O

Hopefully, you got 6 point sockets and not 12 point sockets, which tend to round off nuts. Besides the chrome finish, the other thing to look for is for variances in socket dimensions and how the drive engages the ratchet, or torque wrench, in your case. Cheap sockets may have a nice chrome finish but the finish cracks under constant use, and they may not always fit the nut or bolt properly.

If you want the best sockets, get Snap-On, Mac, or Matco. They all have a lifetime warranty and the socket walls are thinner than on less expensive sockets. I use Snap-On and Craftsman sockets.

When you need a warranty replacement on a Craftsman tool, you can take it to a Sears store and get it exchanged on the spot. Does Autozone handle warranty replacements or do you have to mail the tool to the manufacturer?

If you ever get an impact gun, it will crack the chrome finish off of sockets so you have to use impact sockets, which are black.

If you really want to get crazy, there are deep sockets with a plastic sleeve on the outside so that they do not scratch the finish on alloy wheels.

The black dust on your hands is brake dust.

While you are shopping for tools, get a 6 inch machinist's metric scale. It looks like a ruler made out of sheet metal with a sliding pocket clip. When you rotate your tires, use the scale to measure brake lining thickness. If lining thickness is 2 mm or less, they need replacement.

Reply to
Ray O

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Ray, yes, you can return the tool to any AutoZone store and get a replacement on the spot. Here's the exact wording on the plastic tag attached to the Duralast socket:

Guaranteed for life.

Full Duralast Unlimited Warranty.

If any Duralast Guaranteed-For-Life hand tool ever fails to give complete satisfaction, return it to any AutoZone store and it will be replaced, free of charge.

This warranty gives you specific legal rights and you may also have other rights which vary from state to state.

-- Sounds pretty good to me.

The tag also says:

Distributed by AutoZone, Memphis, TN.

Made in Taiwan, ROC.

Professional Grade tools.

Chrome Moly steel for strength and durability.

One thing I noticed about the 21mm deep socket is the top third is slightly thinner than the bottom two-thirds. I asked the AutoZone fellow about this; he said it makes the socket stronger because the ratchet/wrench attaches at the top. And I thought they were just trying to save material.

I made sure to get all 6 points as I remember you saying a long time ago that 12-point sockets can round off nuts more easily.

Earlier today I printed out a brake inspection checklist from the book "Auto Upkeep." One of the things it says is to:

"Use a ruler to measure the brake pad thickness. Measure only the pad, not the metal backing. Brake pads with less than 1/8th of an inch are usually considered worn out. Measure both inner and outer pad on disc brakes."

Also printed out the book's tire inspection and rotation procedure. I hope the baseball-sized hail in Kansas doesn't make it here tomorrow. Weathercasters say it might.

Reply to
Built_Well

Built_Well wrote in news:beb0ca46-5919- snipped-for-privacy@27g2000hsf.googlegroups.com:

The problem happens when you dial the wrench down all the way, but than keep going so as to undo the 11mm calibration nut inside the handle. Once that nut comes loose, the calibration is shot. And these wrenches are cheap enough that having them recalibrated is not economic.

You MUST dial them ALL the way back down for storage. Failure to do so puts load on the spring inside, which eventually causes it to take a "set", which ALSO throws off the calibration.

The answer is to dial it down to 20 ft lbs, then keep going SLOWLY and GENTLY until you feel the handle bottom out.

I wrecked my first Craftsman torque wrench by dialing it down too vigorously so the nut came loose. Then I took it apart to see how it worked. See here for that story:

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Reply to
Tegger

Real men don't need the scale. My eyeballs are calibrated. :)

Bill Putney (To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my address with the letter 'x')

Reply to
Bill Putney

Oh - also, if the pads are getting anywhere near close to the safe limit, it's important to look at the margin all the way around the pad in case they are wearing out of plane and are thinner in the places that are less readily visible/measurable.

Bill Putney (To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my address with the letter 'x')

Reply to
Bill Putney

I wrecked my first Craftsman torque wrench by dialing it down too

Hey, Tegger. That is a well done and informative article. Thanks. Got any more? jor

Reply to
jor

Ray's statement reminded me of an old joke my father in law delighted in telling. In the "olden" days, Sears had a lifetime warranty on all their goods, which meant that if you were ever disappointed in the performance of the item, you could get it replaced under their warranty. So an old farmer went to Sears with a paper bag, and told the clerk he wanted a spare tire cover replaced. He said "I bought this tire cover for my Model A a couple of years ago and there didn't seem to be anything wrong with it, but yesterday I had a blowout and put on the spare tire, and that durned cover didn't last half a mile!" ...as he pulled a shredded tire cover out of the paper bag.

Reply to
mack

And if this does happen you just need to pop the cap off the handgrip. Use an allen wrench to hold the inner shaft and take the grip retaining nut out. Now grab a beam style wrench and a 3/8" square 1/2" drive socket. Hook the two wrenches face to face with the socket. Now use the beam wrench to apply torque to the clicker. Watch the scale and read the number when the click type actually clicks. That gives you a starting torque. Now use the allen wrench to adjust the clicker to a reading halfway between min/max. Keep testing the wrench as you adjust it.

Once you get it to reliably click at the halfway point, stop. Now slip the handle on and make sure the nut sets into it's recess. Now turn it so the scale reads the same as your set point. Now slip the handle back off and apply some thread locker to the nut/shaft. Put the hand grip back on and once your sure the thread locker is set install the locknut while holding the shaft with the allen wrench. Tighten it down with some thread locker on it. reinstall the cap and your wrench should be very close to correct.

Reply to
Steve W.

"Steve W." wrote in news:g2rs9b$qn7$ snipped-for-privacy@aioe.org:

You mean sort of like this...?

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I found there was considerable variance in the beam reading when the click occurred, well above the 4% tolerance the clicker was rated for.

And in case you're wondering, the shaft of the clicker was not even slightly distorted by the vise. I miked it before and after, in several locations.

Reply to
Tegger

jor wrote in news:2008061210142616807-jor@jorcom:

Any more what?

Reply to
Tegger

Sounds good to me too!

I think they were just trying to save material. I really doubt if the folks at Autozone are that knowledgeable about tool design.

1/8 inch = 3/175 mm.

Toyota's recommendation is to replace at 1 mm. I double that and replace at

2 mm, which is between 2/32" and 3/32"
Reply to
Ray O

I generally don't measure either because I can no longer read the fine print on my machinist's scale without glasses. If I'm doing someone else's car and they're standing there watching, I turn it into a learning experience and have the owner measure and read me the results - it looks better if you measure when someone is watching.

Reply to
Ray O

Also, if the pads are wearing unevenly, make sure the caliper slides are not binding.

Reply to
Ray O

I designed the shed in our back yard to sit on posts because the spot where I wanted it was on a slight slope. I started digging the post holes with a clamshell type post hole digger, got down about a foot, and decided to go out and rent a power post hole digger. One of the neighborhood kids stopped by and asked if he could dig, so I told him he could try and left my Craftsman measuring tape so he would know when the hole was 3 feet deep. I left to rent the power post hole digger after telling him that he could quit whenever he wanted to.

He was gone when I returned about an hour later with the post hole digger, so fired up the engine, stuck the auger into the hole I had started, and started boring the hole. What looked like shiny pieces of metal started coming out of the hole along with the dirt so I stopped the auger, pulled it out, and found that what was left of my measuring tape was at the bottom of the hole. The outer case was shattered and the tape was welded in the coiled position. I took the pieces to Sears and they gave me a new one!

Reply to
Ray O

Good going! BTW, another alternative to making your arms fall off with a post hole digger is to go down a foot or so with it, and unless the ground is clay hard, continue digging with your outdoor shopvac, which will pull the dirt out of the hole like crazy, down to the reach of the wand and hose. Yeah, occasionally you have to stop to empty the canister, but it's cheaper than renting an auger.

Reply to
mack

A state inspection station here got its license pulled because the inspector failed my car because he failed it for brake pads even after I had him measure them and prove to himself that they were over twice the legal minimum limit. That felt good. :)

Bill Putney (To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my address with the letter 'x')

Reply to
Bill Putney

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