Torque wrench size

[james250ninja]

What a good torque wrench for working on my 2012 ninja 250.
Mainly for bolts working on changing brake pads and other small maintenance

[Z1R rider]

I've got two, 1/2" drive that goes up to 150 ft. lbs. and a 3/8 drive that goes to 200 inch lbs....

[jrshooter]

i say 2
3/8 foot pounds
1/4 inch pounds

[DannoXYZ]

Yeah, 3/8 and 1/4. The minimum torque on 3/8 is too high to torque many of the 6mm bolts on bike. Like the engine covers.

[Triple Jim]

Beam type torque wrenches are good throughout their scale, so one that goes to 50 lb-ft is also accurate at 5 lb-ft. (for example)

[Z1R rider]

Originally Posted by Triple Jim

Beam type torque wrenches are good throughout their scale, so one that goes to 50 lb-ft is also accurate at 5 lb-ft. (for example)

yeah, I should have mentioned I don't use clicker type.

[adouglas]

Pros/cons/considerations

Beam type wrenches are simple (no moving parts), won't go out of calibration and as noted above are accurate throughout the range. However, you have to be looking at the wrench to get a reading, and parallax can be an issue (i.e. you have to be looking directly down at the pointer to get an accurate reading, which may not always be possible).

Click-type wrenches are most accurate in the middle of their range. This should be your guide when choosing one. ALWAYS back it off to zero when done, or it'll go out of calibration (I learned this the hard way).

You won't find one wrench that will do it all. You'll need a minimum of two.

Really cheap (i.e. Harbor Freight) wrenches are unlikely to be anywhere near properly calibrated. On the flip side, premium wrenches (e.g. Snap-On dial wrenches) are, for most of us, overkill.

It's useful to test your wrench to find out how close it actually is... make a rig with a known weight at the end of a measured lever, adjust the wrench so that it clicks when you lift the weight, do the math and compare reality to the reading. That way you can compensate for any inaccuracy (that out-of-calibration wrench I mentioned above... I know it reads about 2.5 lb-ft low, so I just set it a bit higher; still using it after 30+ years).

Personally I have three torque tools. A 3/8" clicker that goes up to 240 in-lb, a 7.5-75 ft-lb clicker (both 3/8 so I don't need to carry different sockets) and an electronic torque gauge from Harbor Freight for axle bolts.

[Triple Jim]

Les is right about the disadvantages of a beam type wrench. There were a couple times over the decades I had trouble seeing the scale in the position I had to use it in, so I positioned a small mirror so I could see what I needed to.

[csmith12]

Just go get 2 Craftsman torque wrenches. One 1/2in drive in foot lbs and other in 1/4in drive in inch lbs. Click type is just fine unless your building/repairing airplanes or high spec machine equipment.

99.999999999% of your needs will be taken care of FOREVER....

[jkv45]

One comment about using a torque wrench - be careful. I've seen plenty of people that snap and strip bolts when torquing to the "proper" spec.

We just changed a sprocket on a new-to-us R6. Spec said 70 ft pounds for the nuts. I told my son I thought that was too much, and to double check it. He did. It was the correct spec.

I just did a sprocket on my SV and it was about 45 - which seemed plenty to me.

He decided to go with the spec, and stripped 3 out of 6 studs/nuts (should have stopped after 1, but I wasn't there to "help"...). Had to get a new carrier. Not uncommon apparently.

That amount exceeds normal M10 specs, as well as other factory specs for M10 bolts on the R6.

Gotta know when to say "when". Live and learn.

[Triple Jim]

I have two Craftsman torque wrenches and they're both the beam type. I assume the beam type is cheaper but I haven't checked.

[adouglas]

One more small item that sometimes traps novice torque wrench users...

The "click" type doesn't actually click.

The ratchet head can wobble in the handle, but it's held still by a ball bearing pushed into a recess (a kind of cup) by a spring. Putting force on the handle presses the ball into the spring. When the set torque is reached, the ball compresses the spring enough to ride up out of the recess and the head slaps against the handle, making a sound.

The higher the setting, the harder the bearing is pressed into the recess, the harder you have to pull on the handle to make it pop free, and the louder the "click" noise.

BUT at low torque settings, it doesn't yield suddenly, so no "click." You can feel it yield and hit the stop, but you'll never hear it. More than one person has destroyed a fastener pulling and pulling, waiting for the click that never comes.

Had a hard time finding a nice clear illustration. This is the simplest one I could dig up. It doesn't reflect how real-world wrenches are actually constructed, but it does show the principle.