Question about "OEM" Torque Wrench

[Revtach]

This weekend I was replacing the engine in my Ford Ranger. I don't have a torque wrench so I decided to rent click-type one from Autozone from their rent-a-tool program.

http://www.autozone.com/loan-a-tool...djustable-click-type-torque-wrench/555599_0_0

Maybe it's just me but this thing didn't seem accurate. It is 1/2 drive and about 25" long. I had to tighten the flywheel bolts to 80 ft/lbs and it just seemed like I was going way past 80 ft/lbs before the thing clicked.

Later on when i was tightening the transmission to engine bolts they were supposed to be at ~60 ft/lbs. The first bolt I tried to do it on stripped the threads in the engine block before the torque wrench clicked. For the rest of the bolts I just hand tightened them and will not use that OEM torque wrench again. Now i'm worried about the flywheel bolts having been over tightened and if that will cause problems later on.

My question is if these "OEM" brand click torque wrenches are good or not? How could the bolt have stripped when I had it set on 60 ft/lbs and the torque spec listed is 60 ft/lbs. I was using a universal joint but it wasn't severely angled or anything which would throw the torque spec off. Could this have been what caused it or is the torque wrench just junk?

 

[American Locomotive]

Universal joints should not be used with a torque wrench.

The torque wrench probably isn't "junk", but it probably needs to be calibrated, as it's likely been abused by other tool-renters.

 

[dnschmidt]

I think it is a bad idea to rent "instruments." A torque wrench is an instrument. A puller is not. Something that needs to be calibrated isn't something I want others to have played with. The only exception to this on torque tools would be the old school beam style wrenches as those you can't kill with a shotgun. Anything dependent on a spring, as all clicker torque wrenches are, aren't things I'd trust as a loaner tool.