Inch pounds torque wrench?

Anyone know of a decently priced torque wrench that will measure all the way down to at least 7 ft lbs? Cant find anything at any local stores that measure under 20.

I've been happy with this one.

I just got one from Lowes for $40 that goes from 20-200in lbs or 1.67-16.67 ft lbs. seems to be working great so far just put my whole engine back together with it.

Yup, Lowes - menards - home depot - harborfreight, Think I payed $14.99 for mine at Harbor freight

mcdoudlehopper wrote:

Yup, Lowes - menards - home depot - harborfreight, Think I payed $14.99 for mine at Harbor freight

I have the harbor freight 1/4 and it only measures down to 20 inch lbs. Need it to go down to 7 ft lbs

GhostShiftZ wrote:

I have the harbor freight 1/4 and it only measures down to 20 inch lbs. Need it to go down to 7 ft lbs

Huh??

20 inch pounds is 1.66 foot pounds. 7 foot pounds is 84 inch pounds.

wwguy wrote:

GhostShiftZ wrote:

I have the harbor freight 1/4 and it only measures down to 20 inch lbs. Need it to go down to 7 ft lbs

Huh??  

20 inch pounds is 1.66 foot pounds.  7 foot pounds is 84 inch pounds.

I was gonna say the same exact thing, if he has a 1/4 then it should be well below 20ft lbs. inch lbs is ft lbs times 12. 7.2ft lbs is 84.6inch lbs.

Would this Torque work for everything I need on my WR250X?

The description on this says 10-150 ft./lb
The WR250 needs something which takes me down to 7ft./lb, correct?

CanadianWR250 wrote:

Would this Torque work for everything I need on my WR250X?

The description on this says 10-150 ft./lb
The WR250 needs something which takes me down to 7ft./lb, correct?

Help! Anybody?

Yes. That was pretty much the point of the original post, which is why I didn't respond previously.

Some fasteners are even torqued as low as 5 ft lbs. Here's an excerpt from the torque specs in the service manual for example:

You have to get a dedicated torque wrench for such low torque. The one I have goes from 15 Nm to 150 Nm, but I would never trust it at the lowest end of the spectrum, especially if it was a cheap one (sub 50 bucks).

There's some torque wrenches that do 2-30 Nm for example, that one you can trust (if it's a reasonably priced one - a cheap one may do more damage than good). Even though I'm not a fan of "feeling it", for not crucial jobs that's the way I do it (for example the coolant screw, just tighten it by feel and test if it leaks). For important stuff you'd have to buy a dedicated wrench as I said. Your not gonna find one with reasonable accuracy that will do both the throttle position sensor (3.5 Nm) and the rear axle nut (125 Nm)

bigg wrote:

You have to get a dedicated torque wrench for such low torque. The one I have goes from 15 Nm to 150 Nm, but I would never trust it at the lowest end of the spectrum, especially if it was a cheap one (sub 50 bucks).

There's some torque wrenches that do 2-30 Nm for example, that one you can trust (if it's a reasonably priced one - a cheap one may do more damage than good). Even though I'm not a fan of "feeling it", for not crucial jobs that's the way I do it (for example the coolant screw, just tighten it by feel and test if it leaks). For important stuff you'd have to buy a dedicated wrench as I said. Your not gonna find one with reasonable accuracy that will do both the throttle position sensor (3.5 Nm) and the rear axle nut (125 Nm)

I'm on board with this idea. Even though the wrench advertises itself to go into that range, it's likely not accurate down there. Also, the larger wrench gives you a larger lever (handle length), which means that any excess force you apply along the lever gets multiplied.

There are some bolts (like the stator cover bolts and what not) that you shouldn't need an accurate torque measurement. Just use a small handled ratchet/wrench and tighten it that way, just not too tight as to strip out the threads in the soft metal. If you're doing something like the camshaft journal bolts, then I'd get the appropriate wrench with the appropriate torque in the middle of the range or so. If you strip a bolt in the head, it's going to be waaayyy more expensive than if you bought the right tool. You want to do brain surgery with a scalpel. For leg surgery, a saw is just fine :)

Is there anything on a motorcycle that requires a torque wrench to tighten to 5 or 7 ft/lbs? I have always just tightened things that call for 5 or 7 by feel.

morgan9283 wrote:

Is there anything on a motorcycle that requires a torque wrench to tighten to 5 or 7 ft/lbs?  I have always just tightened things that call for 5 or 7 by feel.

Depends on how accurate you believe your hand to be, and how critical the component is. For example, I would not attempt to tighten any of the fork retaining bolts by feel, but for something like the levers, sure.

For such critical bolts, I use a torque adapter (like the AC Delco one) that comes with a calibration certificate; I would not trust a cheap torque wrench like the ones from Harbor Freight for such applications.