3/8" torque plus angle with flex head torque wrench

[billconner]

This is what my son asked for for Christmas. WTF is it? (I don't really need to know.) He said he can live without it, so not something he needs for earning a living nor to be used daily. I'd sure appreciate anyone pointing me to some reasonably priced options.

 

[2ndGearRubber]

A digital torque wrench which can measure both applied torque, and angle of rotation. Some specs call for 50ft/lbs, then an additional 75 degrees of rotation.

Flex head, just means with a flex head. I had a gearwrench unit, wasn't very intuitive. To the point I kept the instructions with the tools as I couldn't figure out how to get it into angle mode. Without regular use, your son will likely need the instructions anyways, so that's not an huge concern.

 

[dnschmidt]

Gearwrench makes one of these. The problem with torque and angle is that when you go into angle mode it is very easy to exceed the capacity of a 3/8" digital torque wrench. Here's an example of what I mean. You start with a torque of 50 ft-lb which is well within the range of a 20-100 ft-lb digital torque wrench. They then ask for an additional angle of 90 degrees. At the end of the additional 90 degrees you've exceeded the max torque value of the wrench which is 100 ft-lb. Find out from your kid what he wants to use the wrench for. If it's head bolts go up to 1/2" drive. Harbor Freight's ICON line makes a beautiful 250 ft-lb flex head digital torque wrench with angle that can easily handle these situations without going overrange.

 

[billconner]

I don't know exactly why he needs it. I shared your post with him. Thank you.

 

[pbon]

Gearwrench makes one of these. The problem with torque and angle is that when you go into angle mode it is very easy to exceed the capacity of a 3/8" digital torque wrench. Here's an example of what I mean. You start with a torque of 50 ft-lb which is well within the range of a 20-100 ft-lb digital torque wrench. They then ask for an additional angle of 90 degrees. At the end of the additional 90 degrees you've exceeded the max torque value of the wrench which is 100 ft-lb. Find out from your kid what he wants to use the wrench for. If it's head bolts go up to 1/2" drive. Harbor Freight's ICON line makes a beautiful 250 ft-lb flex head digital torque wrench with angle that can easily handle these situations without going overrange.

I did exactly this a couple of years ago and ruined my HF Quinn 3/8 angle torque wrench that cost $165. Obviously, I won’t make that mistake again. Bought a HF Icon 1/2 angle torque wrench. Would still like to replace the 3/8 one for the next rod bearing job, but still waiting for a good deal.

 

[richfinn]

I don't own an electronic Torque wrench (I don't do much mechanical work anymore), I have a few clicker Torque wrenches a few breaker bars and a mechanical angle gauge with a reaction bar.

It still does the job, but it's a bit slow and sometimes you can't fit the gauge and have to resort to marking bolts with a sharpie

For occasional use this set up is absolutely fine, in a workshop working to book times it probably wouldn't cut the mustard nowadays. It was pretty normal back in the early 90s, I did a lot of engine work back then and never had any issues.

 

[billconner]

So I found out he has a 1/2" for exactly the reasons dnschmidt mentioned. He feels the smaller one is better for some things: "This past weekend I did the water pump, timing chain and cam sensor along with the vvt sensor. All around 11-32 foot pounds." I guess he knows what he's doing.

 

[dnschmidt]

I did exactly this a couple of years ago and ruined my HF Quinn 3/8 angle torque wrench that cost $165. Obviously, I won’t make that mistake again. Bought a HF Icon 1/2 angle torque wrench. Would still like to replace the 3/8 one for the next rod bearing job, but still waiting for a good deal.

You actually didn't ruin it. These wrenches are made by Eclatorq and what happens is once you do this you perpetually get an error message but the wrench will still work. Furthermore the message can easily be removed if you have the Eclatorq cable and software it's a thirty second job. Call Angle Repair in West Virginia and they can do this for you as well as check the calibration of the wrench. Don't know what that would cost but it's sure cheaper than buying a new 3/8" digital with angle torque wrench.

 

[pbon]

I already threw it out. But not before I asked here about repair. And a few months back, a guy who used to work with or for Eclatorq or at least knew a lot about them said there were no repair kits and the wrench could not be repaired. That is OK; maybe you will have helped the next guy — it was my fault but if I had thought or read more this might not have happened

 

[dnschmidt]

There is a little port on the side of Ecatorq torque wrenches (sort of like the hole on a phone for the USB cable) that is used for both recalibrating and resetting the wrench. One uses the unique Eclatorq cable and software to do both jobs. On the recalibration side you take five (I think) readings at specific torque values on a calibrated torque tester. You write down your results given 1) by your wrench and 2) the value shown of the calibrated torque tester and enter these into the software. If you're wrench was off the software overwrites the current calibration in your wrench with the new calibration and substitutes the correct values into the EEPROM thereby calibrating the wrench. The error message erasing is much easier and faster but Electorq is fairly insistent that you should recalibrate the wrench after you've over torqued it.

 

[pbon]

Mine was stripped inside the head. It would skip. I tried to find a rebuild kit but was told there are none. Have a 25% off HF coupon good until tomorrow and may buy another, reducing my replacement cost from $165 to $123.