Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Maintenance & Servicing Have you checked your torque wrench calibration?

You learn something every day

My only criticism was that he put the socket in a vice without using a set of soft jaws

Good advice.

Remember also that bolts should be lightly lubricated with thin machine oil (such as 3in1) or the torque applied will not translate fully into clamping force.

This is because on a dry bolt some of the torque is lost in the friction of the thread before it gets to the full clamping load.

PS. Don't forget my Cam TDC tools

Have access to the torque checking machine at work that gets calibrated annually so from time to time I do check.

Calibration of tools is always good practice. No need to place a socket in a vice, the socket will be very unhappy, just grip the square drive in your vice using soft jaws. I was always taught to use a molycote type grease on screw threads, this to ensure the delivered force is presented as a clamping force and not reduced due to frictional loss of the male female threads and shoulder contact.

We use a "spider" for cable testing. It consists of 19 wires pot-soldered together at one end, crocs on the other end of 18 of them and a banana plug on the last one. Believe it or not, it has to get calibrated to Network Rail's standards! That is in the real world, however, in a training environment we just ask the candidates what they would check on the spider. (Calibration and continuity).

Hear! Hear!

They are already in the bag and ready to go!

A good reason to keep that worn out socket.

I did mine a different way. I put the torque wrench in the vise sticking out and vertically hanging down rather than horizontal. I didn't use a socket, just the square in the vice with soft metal to protect it. I measured 2 foot on my particular wrench and marked it on tape. Used a 16kg kettle bell to gently hang off the tape at the mark with the torque wrench set to 70foot lb and heard it click, then put it to 71 and heard it not click so was happy as 16kg is 35.2lb and needed to be 70.4pounds at two feet. So my wrench will click somewhere between 70 and 71 and 70.4 is pretty well in the middle.

I think I prefer my method as his means having to look at the scale that is not that steady as he pulled on it.

I fully agree with Cat302 regarding regular calibration of tools, in fact I re-calibrated my hammer just this morning !!!!

You can’t beat being thorough...I mean, that’s really hitting the nail on the head!!