Garcky
Well-known member
When I was a freshman in college, back in 1963, I had a 1958 Harley Davidson 165 motorcycle, one of HD's 2-stroke wonders. It wasn't a great motorcycle, by any means, but it ran. Well, I had occasion to remove its cylinder head to replace its burnt-out gasket. The parts guy at the H-D store told me what the torque was for the nuts on the studs for that cylinder head. I nodded and took note of that.
I understood what inch-pounds meant, but had no torque wrench. All I had was a 1/4" drive socket set my father had given me. It came with a 6" long breaker bar that had a hole at the end of the handle. If I remember correctly, the nut on the head was a 1/2" hex, so the stud must have been 5/16". I don't remember what the torque specification was.
My roommate in the dorm was an avid angler. I asked him if he had a scale for weighing fish, and if I could borrow it. He said yes.
So, I borrowed his fish scale and calculated the force needed, given the 5.5" distance between the center of the socket and the hole in the breaker bar handle. I hooked the fish scale into the breaker bar handle and torqued those little head nuts to specification by pulling the fish scale.
Where there's a will, there's a way, I guess. In reality, just tightening those nuts by feel to about the same torque would probably have worked just fine, but I did what I was told to do, despite not owning a torque wrench.
Must do? Make do.
Here's the idea:
I understood what inch-pounds meant, but had no torque wrench. All I had was a 1/4" drive socket set my father had given me. It came with a 6" long breaker bar that had a hole at the end of the handle. If I remember correctly, the nut on the head was a 1/2" hex, so the stud must have been 5/16". I don't remember what the torque specification was.
My roommate in the dorm was an avid angler. I asked him if he had a scale for weighing fish, and if I could borrow it. He said yes.
So, I borrowed his fish scale and calculated the force needed, given the 5.5" distance between the center of the socket and the hole in the breaker bar handle. I hooked the fish scale into the breaker bar handle and torqued those little head nuts to specification by pulling the fish scale.
Where there's a will, there's a way, I guess. In reality, just tightening those nuts by feel to about the same torque would probably have worked just fine, but I did what I was told to do, despite not owning a torque wrench.
Must do? Make do.
Here's the idea:
Last edited:
