[alfa] Re: torque wrench

[Jon Pike <jhpike@xxxxxxx>]

Well, while parts gathering for my big adventure last year,  I picked up 
a pair of Harbor Freight $12 specials (sale price)  Got the 1/2" and 
3/8" drives. 
Then, I had that ol' paranoid feeling wash over me..  thinking I was 
going to rebuild an engine and much of the rest of the car with a $12 
torque wrench?  At the place I was working,  we had a calibrated, 
digital force gauge that would read out to 0.1 pound.  So I brought the 
wrenches to work, measured out the 12" mark on them,  clamped their 
drives in a bench vise and checked the calibration of the dial by 
pressing with the gauge at the 1ft mark till the click.

Surprise, surprise!  These fine pieces of Chinese Low Cost Engineering 
claimed +-4% accuracy, and darned if they were at least that good!!  I 
was kind of amazed...   I went ahead using them, and felt better about it.

Now,  I'm not guarenteeing that you could buy one and expect it to be 
the same..  or if mine will stay in cal for any great stretch of time..  
but that's the results I had with the ones I bought.

Now, if only I could find a decent force gauge cheap,  for the home 
garage...

Jon
77 Spider  (up to 450 miles now..  nearly time for oil, torqing, and a 
somewhat higher RPM limit!!)
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