Dying by the torque wrench

[Burnspot]

Well, there I was, beautiful day outside, working on the bike in the garage...wanting to go riding later. I just lost my job this past week, so I needed some riding to get out from underneath the clouds.

I had the rear wheel off, cleaning the rear sprocket, hub, etc., and was putting everything back together. Came to the part where I was going to remount the rear sprocket to the clutch hub. Manual says 72ftlbs, okay, no sweat. I have a tube-style torque wrench (Craftsman) and set it accordingly. Start doing a star pattern tightening on each sprocket stud. I get to the point where I'm pretty sure I'm going to hit the right torque when one of the nuts goes loose....it's stripped! Looks like no riding for me this weekend....and time to buy a beam-style torque wrench (and hub assy...when I have money again). Lesson learned.:banghead:

According to Ron Ayers....a $160 lesson (replacing clutch hub, bearing, oil seal, and collar...to have a fresh set).

 

[600ccdevil]

I know this is going to sound bad but...I never use a torque wrench. I've had way to many stripped bolts. I'm not a big guy (5'9 170ibs) so I usually just give it all I've got, within reason. I've never had a nut come loose on me. With that said, I check them often to make sure they don't wiggle loose. I know it's not an ideal way to do things but I don't trust torque wrenches to not detroy my equipment.

Disclaimer: I'm not a mechanic and have had very minimal mechanical training (Army style). This is just my opinion on torque wrenches.

 

[Burnspot]

I know this is going to sound bad but...I never use a torque wrench. I've had way to many stripped bolts. I'm not a big guy (5'9 170ibs) so I usually just give it all I've got, within reason. I've never had a nut come loose on me. With that said, I check them often to make sure they don't wiggle loose. I know it's not an ideal way to do things but I don't trust torque wrenches to not detroy my equipment.

Disclaimer: I'm not a mechanic and have had very minimal mechanical training (Army style). This is just my opinion on torque wrenches.

I'm just about the same way for general fastening, but with critical components that bear a lot of load, I tend to torque to spec just to be safe.

 

[abacall]

^^Hell yeah. If my life depends on it, better believe it's torqued withing spec.

 

[urbanj]

I dunno. I've never stripped or broken off bolts or nuts when using a torque wrench. The only times things fail in my experience is laziness and you torque small fasteners way to tight. may not be bad at first but it stretches the fastener past its elastic limit (yield strength) and it never is permanently stretched so you try to use it again it's FUBAR.

Maybe the threads where damaged and you didn't see, the torque wrench was out of calibration or you didn't feel it click.

I've never had any problem using all types of torque wrenches. All I use now is Snap-on digital ones now so maybe I'm just privileged but my first wrenches were craftsman click style.

Practice makes perfect

http://www.600riders.com/forum/how-tos/16047-how-use-torque-wrench.html

 

[Burnspot]

I dunno. I've never stripped or broken off bolts or nuts when using a torque wrench. The only times things fail in my experience is laziness and you torque small fasteners way to tight. may not be bad at first but it stretches the fastener past its elastic limit (yield strength) and it never is permanently stretched so you try to use it again it's FUBAR.

Maybe the threads where damaged and you didn't see, the torque wrench was out of calibration or you didn't feel it click.

I've never had any problem using all types of torque wrenches. All I use now is Snap-on digital ones now so maybe I'm just privileged but my first wrenches were craftsman click style.

Practice makes perfect

http://www.600riders.com/forum/how-tos/16047-how-use-torque-wrench.html

Yea, I'm pretty darn careful with these sorts of things. The other nuts were fine...it was just the one that let go on me. Looking at the backside of the hub, I can see the stud is still firmly in place, so it stripped out in the nut. Not sure exactly what happened, but I suppose the wrench could have gone out of cal between nuts...unlikely, but possible. Or, the stud was simply damaged to begin with. I had inspected everything when pulling it apart, but perhaps that one stud had some issues I did not see. Oh well.

 

[Gosling1]

I did the same thing. After I cursed a little, I broke out the welder and welded the nut to the stud. It has been that was for over 30,000 miles with no problems at all....

 

[Burnspot]

I did the same thing. After I cursed a little, I broke out the welder and welded the nut to the stud. It has been that was for over 30,000 miles with no problems at all....

Heh heh, I have a wide array of tools, but alas, no welder.

 

[Cali rider]

Yea, I'm pretty darn careful with these sorts of things. The other nuts were fine...it was just the one that let go on me. Looking at the backside of the hub, I can see the stud is still firmly in place, so it stripped out in the nut. Not sure exactly what happened, but I suppose the wrench could have gone out of cal between nuts...unlikely, but possible. Or, the stud was simply damaged to begin with. I had inspected everything when pulling it apart, but perhaps that one stud had some issues I did not see. Oh well.

I had the same thing happen. Read these 2 posts BEFORE you order any parts:

http://www.600riders.com/forum/fz6-technical/12290-rear-sprocket-nut-problem.html#post155953

http://www.600riders.com/forum/fz6-technical/12290-rear-sprocket-nut-problem.html#post155972

Basically, the torque value listed in the service manual is wrong!

 

[urbanj]

I thought that. I looked at the service manual cause I thought maybe
They looked at the wrong numbers. But sure enough that's
The given torque spec. I don't know the fasteners size off the top of my head and my bike isn't stored at home to check but I'd guess
It may be a m10. Either way something that small
Should not be that tight. Every size fastener had a spec'd range. I'd find the chart get the size and torque it to that spec
70 something footpounds is huge. Hell a honda wheel stud is 80 lbs. Ft.

 

[Burnspot]

I had the same thing happen. Read these 2 posts BEFORE you order any parts:

http://www.600riders.com/forum/fz6-technical/12290-rear-sprocket-nut-problem.html#post155953

http://www.600riders.com/forum/fz6-technical/12290-rear-sprocket-nut-problem.html#post155972

Basically, the torque value listed in the service manual is wrong!

Great find! That'll save me some bucks. #$#@#$ manual and wrong torque values. Hopefully, I can save it and be back in business.

 

[urbanj]

I don't have my bike on hand. What is the head size of the nuts for the rear sprocket?

 

[SovietRobot]

I know this is going to sound bad but...I never use a torque wrench. I've had way to many stripped bolts. I'm not a big guy (5'9 170ibs) so I usually just give it all I've got, within reason. I've never had a nut come loose on me. With that said, I check them often to make sure they don't wiggle loose. I know it's not an ideal way to do things but I don't trust torque wrenches to not detroy my equipment.

Disclaimer: I'm not a mechanic and have had very minimal mechanical training (Army style). This is just my opinion on torque wrenches.

+1 I never use a torque wrench. There's a "feel" that you learn when you work on cars/bikes.