Problems with CDI torque wrenches

[Razorhunter]

Is there a line of click style torque wrenches with a high tooth count and a decent working FWD/REV lever that won’t inadvertently flip from FWD to REV on me every time I slightly brush it up against almost anything? If you breathe on this thing the lever loosely flops over and it always happens at the worst times.
I bought several CDI torque wrenches at once and they are all this way.
I wouldn’t mind having a much easier to read poundage adjustment scale as well if that even exists. Almost anything other than the faintly obscure micro etched markings in a faint gold color on these torque wrenches would be an improvement.

ETA I have not yet gone into one of these torque wrenches to even see if there might possibly be any mods I could do to at least address the FWD/REV lever issue. Wondering if anything could be done here.

 

[Fatboyslim]

I have 3 CDI torque wrenche. Same problem. It can get frustrating

 

[Razorhunter]

Man I also hate the plastic plugs that fall out of the handles as well.
The torque wrenches work well, and I feel they are consistent and accurate, but I feel there is better available on the market.

 

[Nutria]

This is too funny. I just finished a bunch of awkward under-the-car-without-ramps work 15 minutes ago using two different CDI wrenches. Yes! They must have flipped on me four times each after a battle to get the socket seated on the fastener. But it's usually not clockwise to counter-clockwise for me. Instead it's to the neutral-lock position-- which means that you could easily over-torque a fastener.

Agreed on the scale as well. I don't think that there is a patent on some engraved markings with white paint, so c'mon CDI. I still think that these wrenches are a good value, but this stuff isn't rocket science, so what's up?

 

[vjquan]

Can totally relate, I have 5 of them. The center lock position is dumb unless you have need for a fixed head. ICON and Snap On have a high tooth count and roll stamp scale. I've thought about removing the REV pawl to make it a FWD only or dabbing a little epoxy on the switch.

 

[AEAdam]

I guess I’m nuts (but in the right place). I constantly or periodically search for used Snap on torque wrenches. In my defense, I have the first gen techangles and would like the newer gen. I find tons of used snap on clickers for what I think are cheap prices.

Snap On’s clickers are literally the industry std.

One thing that puts people off used torque wrenches is concern they are out of calibration. If you are torquing fasteners penetrating an aircraft fuel tank, I get it. Buy new and cal yearly. Automotive? Even engine building, if your wrench is within 5% you are more than good enough. For automotive, similarity is often more important than accuracy.

Buy used is my advice.

 

[jayemm]

Unless you have to have "the best", I'd think that for DIY, at a much lower cost, a decent made in Taiwan TW and a digital torque adapter for periodic cal checks would suffice.

 

[toddmorr]

Dump cdi, I did for all the reasons above. Can't read them, tooth count too low, switch flips.

Bought Norbar and it's all good now

 

[Nutria]

tooth count too low

Oh, yeah, that too.

 

[Jacko264]

Britool Was always good

 

[AEAdam]

Not 100% convinced tooth count and back drag are design drivers for torque wrenches.

Obviously back drag shouldn’t be excessive. Remember, our company rules say you must swing 90 degrees before hitting the target torque. Obviously, even we can’t always do that.

But if all you’ve got is a couple clicks such that you wish you had more teeth in the ratchet head, you are almost wasting your time with your torque wrench. You won’t really get an accurate preload.

My guess is this is why Snap on has always been slow to upgrade torque wrench heads. I think they are dual 80 now. In my mind, that’s only an advantage because I stock dual 80 rebuild kits.

 

[Steve_P]

I have a bunch of CDI torque wrenches- I don't have any issues with the selector switch flipping. Mine are 10+ years old.

Yeah, the CDI tooth count is abysmal in the 21st century. And that won't change since Snap On owns them and doesn't want them to compete with their clickers that cost 4X as much.

I have a couple of Icon 90T clickers and they're quite nice to use. But both of mine are 5-6% off spec using the HF digital torque tester.

 

[ronkz650]

I have three CDI torque wrenches from 2011. I upgraded to a couple snapon techangle and a couple of snapon Tqfr split beams, so don't generally use the CDI wrenches anymore, but when I did, I can't recall even one time having the selector switch change direction or having any trouble reading the wrench settings and 32t or whatever never presented itself as a problem.
Also if it does accidentally switch to the center lock position, the wrench is still going to click at the same torque point vs using the ratcheting normal procedure, so no fear of any real detrimental effects except annoying if it did happen. The center lock position is real handy if you're using the torque wrench with torque adapters, crowfoot wrenches and such.

 

[country83]

Dump cdi, I did for all the reasons above. Can't read them, tooth count too low, switch flips.

Bought Norbar and it's all good now

Funny how Snap-on owns both of them now...

 

[dnschmidt]

If you want a conventional clicker it's either Norbar or the eTorq copy of the Norbar you can pick up for cheap on Amazon. I'm done with stupid chrome on chrome setting scales. As an Eclatorq distributor I'm obviously a digital guy but if clicker is what you want either of these two are the only way to go.

 

[Razorhunter]

Thanks for the Norbar recommendation. I’ve never tried one.
One more thing, if I were to convert to digital, what is the recommendation there?? Norbar as well?

 

[dnschmidt]

Digital it's Eclatorq. Good news is that the Quinn digital torque wrenches sold by Harbor Freight are made by Eclatorq. I sell the professional models of Eclatorq which are also sold by all divisions of Stanley Black and Decker (MAC, Proto, USAG) and NAPA Carlyle that have what I call the Christmas tree (looks like a drag racing Christmas tree that shows the torque as it approaches set value) but these are expensive and likely more than you require. If you're going digital it makes little sense to do so unless you include angle which is becoming omnipresent on many vehicles as the use of torque to yield fasteners is constantly increasing. Luckily the Quinn do include angle.

 

[Razorhunter]

I’m not totally sure what “angle” feature means? Is that where you torque a fastener to *** ft-lbs and then go plus 90 degrees for instance? Most vehicles I work on are of older vintage, but it would be nice to have the ability to torque on modern vehicles as well. Please elaborate. Thanks for your response.

 

[dnschmidt]

I’m not totally sure what “angle” feature means? Is that where you torque a fastener to *** ft-lbs and then go plus 90 degrees for instance? Most vehicles I work on are of older vintage, but it would be nice to have the ability to torque on modern vehicles as well. Please elaborate. Thanks for your response.

That's exactly what it is. All torque to yield fasteners have a double specification. 1) You torque them to some low value to take the slop out of the system. 2) They then specify an angle of additional rotation to achieve a specific amount of bolt stretch which really is the proper way to fasten a bolt as torque is if you think about it a completely ******** measurement depending on fifty different forms of friction affected by everything from lubrication to how well the bolt is machined. A torque wrench with angle has both capabilities. 1) It's a conventional torque wrench 2) It has the additional capability to measure angle.

 

[Wamsutta]

So the solution here would be a CDI torque wrench with a Snap-on ratcheting head.

 

[lllest]

It's a nice coincidence this thread exists. I just did a longer, more involved job on a car with my CDI torque wrenches and I was about ready to throw them against the wall because their selector switches kept moving at the wrong time. I found this thread when searching for a solution to the problem.

Reading the idea from @vjquan about epoxying the selector in place so the ratchet is clockwise only, I started thinking about other, less ugly things I could do to get the same effect.

I was going to 3D print a block to put in the channel the selector arm's cam rotates through to block it.

Then my eyes scanned over to a smaller zip tie.

Eureka!

I cut off the head of the zip tie, which looked about the right size and shoved it into the channel. It fit perfectly!

Now the selector is locked in place, and I can easily remove that zip tie head if I ever need to.

I hope this helps someone!

 

[lllest]

@Razorhunter @Fatboyslim @Nutria @vjquan

I figured out a way to prevent the selector switch from moving without doing something more invasive / ugly to our CDI torque wrenches, like epoxy or the like.

The summary is basically take the head of a 2.5mm zip tie (removed from the zip tie) and shove it between the pawls where the selector switch cam goes through. It fits just about perfectly in the space to not interfere with the ratchet mechanism, but to block the selector switch from moving (due to the cam it has on it). At least on the 3/8" CDI torque wrench I was messing around with yesterday And the zip tie head is easily removable if want to get rid of it later.