Personally I would get a 3/8 drive and just get adapters for 1/4"[email protected]/2". If you get a half in you'll either have to get a thin wall ( I think 14mm) socket or 3/8" adapter to get to the hex nut on the crankcase stud, its a tight fit.

Good point. Thanks

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$21. LIFETIME warranty. 20-150 ft/lbs. Accurate

http://www.harborfreight.com/1-2-hal...rench-239.html


Buy what makes you comfortable. I will say though, I went to get a 21mm open end wrench, went to lowes and looked at a kobalt....almost $40... went to home depot and but a husky for about $8 and never looked at kobalt again. I thought heck at that price maybe they're American mare and ill pay it....nope, Asian

if you use adapters on your torque wrench, you need to calculate the new torque values. the longer the adapter the more torque that is actually applied on the fastener. they actually make torque wrench adapters for a reason to keep help eliminate the the math. If all you are using the torque wrench for is the bike, I would go 3/8" drive and then get specialty sockets down to 8 mm and a couple of larger sockets up to 32 mm. If you need to get into 1/4 or 1/2 dr, then go to autozone and rent a the proper torque wrench.

That's good to know, I didn't realize that. But are you talking about extensions? I'm talking about the adapters like 1/2 to 3/8 drive (about an inch long) so you could use a 1/2 drive torque wrench with a 3/8 in socket. Sorry for any misunderstanding.

Slim. I also wanted to add the difference between vertical and horizontal extensions. It was always my understanding that using a vertical extension (like a 6" ext to get into a recessed area) wouldn't really change the value (minimal at best) as long as I applied a constant force, but if I used a horizontal extension (like a crows foot) adding length which in turn would add more leverage, then that would change the values. Am I correct? I also wanted add that I heard if I position the crows foot perpendicular to the wrench it wouldn't add length/leverage, therefore not changing the value?

even a 1/4" vertical rise increases torque slightly, but the longer the increase in length, the more the torque increases.

on your crow foot theory you are correct, and that is also how the torque extensions work, because they aren't perfectly centered, the offset between the ratchet head and the socket is such that the length cancels out the mechanical advantage. also in a perfect world, a vertical length would offer no advantage, but due to human error, the extension acts like a lever, even though you think its perpendicular to the fastener you are working with.

I used to doubt this myself until one of my buddies showed me a trick. I was working on a project struggling to get a rusted #24 screw out of a flat panel. I had plenty of room all around the screw, literally miles. I was using a typical #2 cross tip screw driver to get the suborn screw out with out any luck. My buddy came by and saw me struggling. He said "Why don't you grab a longer screw driver?"
I got into an argument saying that a longer screw driver wouldn't help me, yada yada, yada. But I finally gave in to shut him up... But to my surprise the longer screw driver he handed me did the trick. I had been using a #2 Cross tip with a typical 6" shaft and handle. He handed me a 24" #2 cross tip, and it worked like a charm. After words to prove his point on how it worked, he took out a 1/4" drive torque wrench, several extensions ranging from 3/8" up to 24" and a didgital torque scale (used for calibrating torque wrenches). We set the Torque wrench to 5 lbs and hooked connected it directly to the scale. When the Torque Wrench clicked and wouldn't let any more torque be applied to the scale, the scale read 5 lbs/ft. We torqued three more times to give us an average for comparison. each time the scale read 5 lbs/ft, so we then added the shortest extention and the scale then read 5.10 lbs/ft... (at 5.05 lbs/ft we had to send our torque wrenches off for a replacement) and each extension we used there after kept climbing... at 24" we were pushing 18 lbs/ft.

What is a good way to test the accuracy?

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Get a split beam torque wrench if you can afford it.

some mac or snapon guys can check them on there trucks.

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