30 year old torque wrench gave me a 2 hour headache today

Snapped a bolt on a Cessna 172 exhaust flange because my old Snap-On clicker was reading 10 ft-lbs light, and I trusted it over my gut. Ended up digging a broken extractor out of the remaining stud for 2 hours near the hangar door at KLGB. Any of you guys found a decent digital torque adapter that holds up to daily hangar grease?

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caseythompson25d ago

I used to roll my eyes at guys who double checked with a beam wrench after every click, figured they were just wasting time in the shop. Then my old Craftsman clicker started drifting about 8 ft-lbs heavy over a couple years and I trashed a rocker cover bolt on a Lycoming O-320, so now I check my clicker against a beam every few months like clockwork. It is a pain but way less of a pain than drilling out a snapped bolt at 11pm. As for the digital adapter thing, I have not had good luck with the cheap ones holding up, the screen fogs up and the buttons get sticky once the grease gets in there. I just keep a good beam wrench in the box now as my sanity check instead of chasing gadgets. How far off was yours reading, like consistently 10 under across the range or just at the low end?

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