1/2" Craftsman Digitork Wrench.....?

[Crow Horse]

I've had this old girl (purchased in the early 80's) for a long time. I've only used it for 2 head swaps and tire rotation. Sadly, during floods in 2006, it took a 3 day swim. At that time I dried it out and lubed it up. After nearly 40 years, should I pick up a Quinn Torque adapter to test it's accuracy or should I just look at retiring her and finding a replacement?

 

[Bretny]

You can send them out for calibration. I would at least price it out. If it's accurate why retire it?

Usually the moving parts have lube in them so a dunk shouldn't hurt too much if fresh water.

 

[DFB]

For the price of the Quinn to check why ask if your in doubt.

If it's off then you can decide whether to send off somewhere and recalibrate it for whatever that my cost you or just go buy a new one for what the price range your into.

And if you do buy another one you would even be able to see how that one stacks up in accuracy over the scale by using the "Quinn" instead of always wondering or hoping its right like most people do

I purchased a Quinn last Summer. (but there are others on the market)

I have absolutely no regrets spending the approx $30 I did and you now also have one more tool for accuracy that can also be used with other drive tools like ratchets, straight bars and box end spanners possibly in places your torque wrench won't fit because of its length. The Quinn beeps once you set it don't even have to see the readout to know when you hit the mark.

 

[nafterclifen]

Here are two companies that will calibrate...
http://www.teamtorque.com
http://www.anglerepair.com

If I remember correctly though, the cost is not cheap. I'm a home/hobby user so I opted to perform a self-calibration using a scale (link below) as shown in this video...

Video -

Scale - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07BHPDSKR/?tag=atomicindus08-20

 

[rlitman]

You can send them out for calibration. I would at least price it out. If it's accurate why retire it?

Usually the moving parts have lube in them so a dunk shouldn't hurt too much if fresh water.

Because that wrench is worth less than the recalibration costs, and because yes, time in the drink is enough to destroy any torque wrench with moving parts.

I'd toss it. FWIW, I owned a Digitork wrench and never really trusted it. When it locked up solid on me and refused to click at any torque, I was able to get it replaced under warranty, but at that point I immediately used it as a trade-in at a pawn shop to upgrade to a Snap On split bean he happened to have at the time. Never looked back.

 

[Mechanical Noise]

One of my torque wrenches went through a flood. I opened it up and there was enough rust that I just wasn't going to trust it anymore.

 

[JSHOUSE1]

If it was me, id replace it. When I use a tourque wrench I want to know it is dead on.

 

[Crow Horse]

I pulled the trigger and picked up a Quinn Torque adapter and a Tekton torque wrench. I tested the Digitork and set at 85 ft pounds, it came in at 86.6. The Tekton with the same setting came in at 85.6 ft pounds.For lug nut purposes, I think I'm fine with using the Digitork for lug nut duty. I'm really surprised how well it did considering it's history.....

 

[cptn_zippy]

For all the complaints about them, my old Digitork is within a foot-pound or two. Guess I got lucky like you.

J