daniel_lane30•1mo agoMost Upvoted

Spent $75 on a digital torque adapter for the panel and it saved me a redo

I was wiring up a new Garmin GPS in a Cessna 172 last month and kept second-guessing my torque on some hard-to-reach screws. Picked up a budget digital torque adapter from Aircraft Tool Supply for 75 bucks, and it let me check the torque on fasteners already tightened. Turned out I was under-torquing about 30% of them by a good 5 inch-pounds. That little adapter probably saved me from chasing down a loose screw later. Anyone else use one of these cheap adapters or do you stick with the nice click-type wrenches?

3 comments

3 Comments

paige861mo ago

@blake691 you're right to be skeptical but honestly for hard to reach spots these things are a lifesaver. I used mine on a rudder pedal install last month and caught a few fasteners that were way loose just like the original post says. Plus if you drop a click type wrench from the wing walk it's done for, but the digital adapter just keeps ticking.

emery_lopez28d ago

Haven’t had the same luck with mine though? I dropped my digital adapter off the wing strut last spring and it stopped reading torque values right after that. No visible damage but the display went all wonky. The click type wrenches at least I know when they’re busted from a drop. Plus digital ones eat batteries at the worst times too, like right when you’re in the middle of torquing a critical bolt on the engine mount.

blake6911mo ago

I used to think those digital adapters were a gimmick, but this makes me want to grab one.