Date: Tue, 5 Dec 2000 11:19:22 -0500
From: "Tim Taylor" <timothy.e.taylor@oracle.com>
Subject: [uuc] Re: torque wrenches

Gary Derian said:

>>If you try to use the same torque wrench for lug bolts and the oil pan
>>drain, you will sooner or later strip the pan.  The weight alone, of a
large
>>torque wrench can strip the pan drain plug.  Wrenches for small bolts are
>>short and wrenches for large bolts are long.  There is a very good reason
>>for this.

Been there done that. Bought a Craftsman (no flames please, I don't wrench
enough to justify the good stuff) torque wrench when I got the 17" wheels
this past summer. Worked great on the wheel studs. I stripped the oil drain
plug with it. D'OH! Well, at least it wasn't leaking. A few days later I
took it to Curry's for a lot of other things and asked them to fix it. They
went ahead and just replaced the pan as it was only marginally more $$ than
tapping the threads in the old pan and they had to remove it anyways to
replace a seeping gasket. What a waste of 8 quarts of Mobil 1.

Tim T