12 volt impact wrench

[John Gilmer]

Impact wrenches (all types: pneumatic, manual, electric) WORK.

They are safer than leverage when it comes to loosening nuts/bolts. OTOH than can easily over-tighten.

In the "bad old days" the professionals used a "Cross" wrench. This always seemed to work a lot better than the wrench than was provided by the manufacturer.

Why?

Because the "cross wrench" worked a little like an impact wrench!

Impact wrenches are very good at breaking loose a nut/bolt. Once a nut/bold is loose the pneumatic are very effective at spinning a nut/bolt off. A manual impact wrench acts like any other wrench. An electric impact wrench is likely to be on the slow side until the nut/bolt is quite loose.

[dpb]

In some 50 years I don't recall ever breaking a lug bolt on anything from passenger car to tractors and combines. Being as they're hardened and decent-sized diameters, I think it likely there was a fracture-failure already present to break one w/ just a simple bar (or, of course, you're undoubtedly able to apply much more of a lever-arm than I when applying same... :) ).

I worry far more about the over-torquing of the average tire-shop grease monkey w/ the impact wrench on max at 150 psi over-stressing the bolt and/or stripping threads, not to mention warping brake rotors...

[dpb]

...

Oh, that's easy enough for a Grade-5, probably no more than 5/16" or

3/8" bolt -- probably better off to replace it, anyway.

My point was simply that a Grade-8 lug bolt is pretty formidable to shear w/ no more than an ordinary 1/2" breakover bar unless it already had a stress-fracture or had been over-torqued w/ the aforementioned tire-shop zealot w/ his impact wrench...

[Stormin Mormon]

Rear shocks, Chevy product. The bolt I broke was the main one coming from the frame. I twisted the nut (3/4 or about that size of socket) and the bolt broke off. Looked like it would make for a LOT of work to replace that large a bolt, and not designed to be replaced. Not sure what the hardness was, but the broken bolt was supposed to take the force of the shock absorber.

I know what you mean about the repair garage guys and their over active impact wrenches. I got a safety inspect one year, and came home. Figured to try the lugs, see if.... yep the only thing I owned that would loosen them was a 25 inch breaker bar.

I get funny looks when I tell the repair garage to put the lugs on finger tight, and I'll set the torque before leaving the parking lot.

[Stormin Mormon]

They are safer than leverage when it comes to loosening nuts/bolts. OTOH than can easily over-tighten. CY: Same, here.

In the "bad old days" the professionals used a "Cross" wrench. This always seemed to work a lot better than the wrench than was provided by the manufacturer. CY: Ah, yes, the X-wrench, as I improperly call em.

Why?

Because the "cross wrench" worked a little like an impact wrench! CY: We must be talking about different things.

mean this?

Impact wrenches are very good at breaking loose a nut/bolt. Once a nut/bold is loose the pneumatic are very effective at spinning a nut/bolt off. A manual impact wrench acts like any other wrench. An electric impact wrench is likely to be on the slow side until the nut/bolt is quite loose. CY: Yep, they start slow, and then pick up speed.

[Mike Hartigan]

Given that they're going to do it wrong, I'd rather have them over torque than under torque. It's safer to lose a bolt than the whole wheel.

[AZ Nomad]

I'd rather have neither. It sucks getting a flat tire and being unable to put the spare on because some asshole overtorqued the lugnuts. I don't appreciate hiking back to civilization especially in bad weather.

BTW: All the discount tires shops I've seen use torque wrenches. (at least in colorado and arizona. I don't know about elsewhere)

[Mike Hartigan]

It sucks even more to have a wheel fall off at 70 mph due to under torqued nuts. On a return trip from Philadelphia to Buffalo quite a few years ago, we had to stop due to a severe wobble in one of the rear wheels. Turns out that three of the bolts had already failed and the remaining two were barely hanging on. I shudder to think what might have happened had we gone just a few more miles.

That's been my recent experience around Chicago, although I don't know if it's a universal thing.

[Goedjn]

[Goedjn]

You've got a tire iron and a jack, how can you not be able to loosen the nuts?

[AZ Nomad]

You can be unable to generate 350ft-lbs. of torque with the jack that comes with the car. I've jumped up and down on the end of the tire-iron and still been unable. Sorry. I only weigh 200 lbs and can only generate

200-300ft-lbs of torque when I'm jumping down on the end of a 9" tire iron.

[Goedjn]

You put the tire-iron on the nut, handle-sticking out sideways, to the right. Then you put the jack under the end of the handle and crank it up. You might have an issue if the jack handle is the same hunk of metal as the tire-iron, but that's not usually the case, anymore.

Having a 3' hunk of blackpipe in the car is still a better solution, though.

[Jim Yanik]

Mike Hartigan wrote in news: [e-mail]:

What if they warp the brake rotors?

That gets expensive.

[Jim Yanik]

AZ Nomad wrote in news: [e-mail]:

That's why I use a 1/2" drive breaker bar instead of a short tire iron. I don't need to jump on it,either.You can generate more torque by lifting up on the breaker bar/lugwrench then trying to push down on it with your weight.

Is "G" suggesting you use the tire jack to lift up on the lugnut wrench to break loose the lugnuts? A great opportunity to have the thing slip and go flying with some force in a random direction.

[krw]

I've stripped out the stock tire-iron. I've had some fold up. Most of the stock irons put a sideways torque on the lug and the iron slips off, rounding both.

Having a good (cross) tire iron; priceless.

[AZ Nomad]

Good luck keeping the tool on the lugnut while trying that trick. The chances of that trick working on an overtorqued lugnut are about zero.

[AZ Nomad]

A good cross type tire iron won't generate enough torque. Nowadays I always keep a 20-24" breaker bar and a 1/2" socket in the car.

[krw]

I can put a *lot* of torque on a lug with a cross lug-wrench. Stand on one end while lifting the other puts a tun on torque on the nut, while making sure there is no lateral torque on the lug.nut/wrench.

[AZ Nomad]

I was talking about situations where the lugnuts have been overtorqued by a impact hammer.

[Mike Hartigan]

Not nearly as expensive as losing a wheel.

And it seems that brake rotors are finally getting cheaper. I recently bought a pair for my son's Stratus at Auto Zone for $15 each.