I don't know my own strength and after reading about all the striped and busted screws/bolts on here I use the torque wrench for virtually everything. It's worked for me so far so why change.

 

After stripping clutch inspection cover screw and tranny drain plug, I bought some torque wrenches. Obviously I do not know that steel is harder than aluminum. Now I just go by the numbers and don't screw up.

 

Yep , what he said ! On a shovel you have to practice the 3 " L's " if you want an even chance running reliably . LockTite , lockwashers and locknuts . I have 5 different torque wrenches and a set of Snap-on Dial gauge wrenches .

 

I use torque wrenches to keep from stripping out the aluminum.

 

Maybe I'm overly cautious or paranoid or whatever you want yo call it but I loctite and torque all my fasteners.

 

I share bucketass' opinion, i spun wrenches on diesels and OTR trucks for a few years after growing up the son of a navy stoker, read the specs and use the proper tools. it sucks finding out the hard way your "arm tight" was actully 25lbs to loose....

 

Yep, Snap On
Inch and Foot lbs on every bolt nut or screw to owners manual sequence and spec.

Al

 

I don't rent my wrenches, I bought them. The money has been spent. It doesn't cost me any more to use them.
I'm not saying that I use them on every nut or bolt every time.
I always use them on internals and on any joint with a gasket or seal. Also anything that would be real bad to break or loose.

I don't have service manuals for every machine I work on. If I need torque values for those I look them up on an industry standard spec sheet.
Too tight can be as bad or worse than not tight enough.

 

Why would you NOT want to use a torque wrench? For the price of a couple oil changes, you can pick up a set decent craftsman inch and foot pound wrenches. They last a long time. They ain't hard to use. If you've invested in all the other tools, why not invest in a couple torque wrenches? I use mine all the time. I see no advantage in NOT using them.

 

I got into the habbit of using them when I was wrenching for a living but don't use them now as much as I probably should. If I ***** up now I'm only phucking up my bike and not someone elses.

I still think it's a good idea to use one though.