Morris Minor Owners Club

Hi all was wondering if I would get away with a quarter inch torque wrench for the sump and other small jobs such as head bolts and water pump.Dont want to buy a half inch as well if I can get away with it.What do you think.

I wouldn’t have thought a half inch drive was calibrated high enough for head bolts, even if it was strong enough, which I would say it isn’t. Invest in a half inch wrench, you’ll need in future it if you intend to keep motoring.

A 1/4" square drive torque wrench is not man enough to set head nuts to 50lbf ft.
As Les suggests buy a 1/2" drive torque wrench.
They are not expensive.
You can always step down to do smaller nuts.
3/8" drive is a good compromise.
Whatever you buy make sure that it has a calibration certificate.

philthehill wrote: ↑Sun Mar 21, 2021 5:19 pm Whatever you buy make sure that it has a calibration certificate.

A good point, but...the question is,
What are you going to do with the Wrench in 6 or 12 months?
How are you going to get the calibration checked?
How long are you going to have trust in the certificate?

Does anyone periodically check their torque wrench themselves, even at a single setting, such as mid-range?

If you use a torque wrench with a known original calibration certificate correctly and unscrew/loosen the torque wrench after every use the calibration will remain.
My Britool torque wrench is many years old but is still serviceable and I would trust it every time to get the torque setting right. Tolerance can be checked against another torque wrench.
One of my torque wrenches (and I have at least 4 of different capacities) and of the type originally used in the aircraft/space industry specifies in the operating instructions that so long as the tension on the spring is removed after use it will not go out of original specification. But there again you get what you pay for.
I do check the torque settings against other torque wrenches.
You can easily get the torque wrench calibrated but it would be cheaper to buy a new torque wrench with a current certificate.

Thank you gentleman

philthehill wrote: ↑Sun Mar 21, 2021 8:25 pm If you use a torque wrench with a known original calibration certificate correctly and unscrew/loosen the torque wrench after every use the calibration will remain.

Agree with Phill.

The tool cribs where I work have to get all the torque wrenches calibrated (and pressure gauges and hand mics etc) every year.

I call out the tools for the engine fitters and part of what I have to do is log the certificate, fitter id what have you so I have the lifecycle of the wrenches from years and years and most never change - and the ones that are recalibrated are only in the tenths on a Newton.

It’s a big shipyard with a lot of tools and recalibration at an outside company is $100 a pop.

Maybe good trade to get into!

Buy a good quality wrench Britool etc not those inferior Chinese tools