Now that I am doing more wrenching on my car I have found more situations that my large torque wrench doesn't fit into the tight 928 engine bay. Also, the wide range of settings make me wonder how accurate the lower numbers are.

So, I am looking for a good quality but still reasonably priced micro torque wrench that is compact enough to be useful in tight quarters.

What do you guys use? Would love some direction.

Thanks

Steve

 

I use a 3/8" drive Snap-on "clicker" torque wrench. When fully extended it is only about a foot long. It is graduated from 0 to 85 foot lbs. It's about 20 years old and I paid less than $200.00 for it. I have seen similar ones used at swap meets and pawn shops for about $75.00 and up. For something as critical as a torque wrench I would shy away from cheap import brands and stick with name brand tools made in the U S of A.

 

I have a collection of various clicker wrenches, from 1/4" drive inch-pound 0-200, to 3/4" foot-pounds 0-400. I have really neat 1/4" drive inch pound torque-limiting screwdriver. I've used them all on the 928 for various things over the years.

 

As a weekend warrior mechanic of limited skills, I have a pair of Craftsman 3/8" and 1/2" clicker torque wrenches that are good for anything between 10 and 250 ft-lbs of torque. When I did my oil pan gasket , I bought one of Harbor Freight's Pittsburg 1/4" torque wrenches in order to get 6 or 7 foot pounds on the oil pan bolts. Well, I played with it on another non-critical bolt first, and with it set on 72 inch pounds, it tightened the bolts so much that I could 'click' my Craftsman wrench set on 12 Foot-pounds.

Long story short, stay away from HF for precision micro-torque wrenches.....

 

I have owned two Craftsman "clicker" type torque wrenches in the past and they both broke and were not repairable. Since then I now have a small collection of 1/4", 3/8" and 1/2" Snap On "clicker" type torque wrenches - I am very pleased with their performance. They are easily repaired and calibrated too.

I also have a Facom brand 1/4" drive 5 - 25nm torque wrench that I purchased a couple of years ago from "ultimate garage" (in NJ). It is a very precise/accurate torque wrench - especially at the lower torque values. This is the torque wrench I use most often on my 928 engine components.

Hope this helps!
Adam


Adam

 

I have a 3/8 drive electronic snap on torque wrench, i thought it was a gimick when i first saw one but i would not go back now, and have had the calibration checked and its spot on.

 

Snap On clicker type...............I own 2 of them 15-100 ft lbs and 0-200 in lbs.

Never had an issue, regularly calibrated and they're now both 25 yrs old.

 

I found a practically new snap-on inch-pound torque wrench on ebay -- nobody seemed to want it, because it was of a size that typically uses 1/4" drive but it was 3/8" drive. I picked it up for ~$20, picked up a kit to convert it to 1/4" from snap-on for $28, and for about $50 ended up with a torque wrench that would have cost close to $200 new. Not stripping 6mm engine bolts -- priceless.

 

Call me old-fashioned, but I still like beam-style torque wrenches. Repeatable, easy to read, don't need calibration, not expensive.

Remember the story about the "space pen" vs. the pencil.