The impact socket revelation after 15 years of torque wrenches

I was putting a harmonic balancer bolt back on a 5.3 Vortec last Tuesday and my torque wrench just clicked way too early. Turns out I was reading the scale wrong this whole time, I thought the top row was foot pounds but it was Newton meters. Always wondered why my crank bolts were always a little loose on startup, had a guy at the parts counter in Phoenix ask what spec I was using and it all clicked. Anyone else mix those scales up or am I just the only one who never looked at the second line?

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reesea495d ago

Man, that's brutal. My buddy Dave did the same thing with his harbor freight torque wrench on his Chevelle, stripped two wheel studs before he realized he was reading the wrong line. He was torquing lugs to like 80 Nm thinking it was 80 ft-lbs, which isnt crazy low but enough to let the wheel wobble on the freeway. Scared the crap out of him when he felt the shimmy at 70 mph and pulled over to find three nuts barely hanging on. He still tells that story whenever anyone mentions torque specs, and now he double checks the units every single time. The worst part is he'd been doing it for years too, just like you. Probably a lot of us out there running loose bolts and not even knowing it.