[Zegwin]

Well after my cam shaft nut incident I have once again destroyed a part on my bike with the torque wrench. So while changing the clutch I first broke the back plate that you screw the bolts that hold the springs in place with. Before I noticed that I also broke the head off of another bolt while screwing the bolts in to hold the springs in place. Luckily I have another engine so I took the broken part from that and this time read the directions properly and did not break anything. So now I have a new clutch and front brakes and everything works just fine. Just waiting for the carbs to come home and to derust my gas tank and life will be good again!.

 

[Blindstitch]

How much torque were you putting on them and which wrench of what size? Also if the pounds of pressure is 9 I usually set the wrench to 6 first so I get them all there. I may be a bit paranoid but I don't break bolts that don't want to be broken.

 

[Zegwin]

How much torque were you putting on them and which wrench of what size? Also if the pounds of pressure is 9 I usually set the wrench to 6 first so I get them all there. I may be a bit paranoid but I don't break bolts that don't want to be broken.

Well the bolts I was tightening were the ones that hold the springs down. Those are only supposed to be HTT. The manual, I thought, told me to tighten them to "88 inch pounds" about 7.33 foot pounds. So now I had to do math and it was for the cover to the clutch I believe. Anyways. Lesson learned the hard way but luckily I had a spare... Wish I did not need to use it but that is what it is there for. Oh and my gut was saying this is bad but my hand kept going... then "SNAP."

 

[Bri-Guy-GA]

Another thing Zeg is to screw them in incrementaly over 3-4 passes to keep from damaging the housing or hold down bar.

 

[LRCXed]

Not all torque wrenches are created equal! You may have one that's not calibrated. I have a speed shop here that has a calibrator tool mounted on the wall. When I got my new one I went and checked it to be sure it was working right. You may want to call around and see if you have someone that can help calibrate yours. It would be cheaper than buying a bunch of parts.



Oh, your carbs are almost done. Just working on new slide pistons for them. Testing in an hour.

 

[Randall-in-Mpls]

Oh and my gut was saying this is bad but my hand kept going... then "SNAP."

Always trust your gut. If it seems like it's tighter than it should be, zero out the wrench and reset it.



I have a cheap torque wrench that has failed to click on a couple occasions, but I've never broken a bolt with it.



R

 

[achille]

Always trust your gut.



R

Always.



It goes with the territory; we've all snapped off fasteners one time or another.



Hopefully one always learns a little something.



Easy does it.

 

[bandit]

Always trust your gut. If it seems like it's tighter than it should be, zero out the wrench and reset it.



I have a cheap torque wrench that has failed to click on a couple occasions, but I've never broken a bolt with it.



R

totally agree.

i NEVER trust a tourque wrench alone.in fact i refuse to use it on any bolts/nuts under 20 LB per SQ foot

 

[Cobram]

A torque wrench needs to periodically be recalibrated, or at least tested.



To check your wrench, ask a Matco, SnapOn, Mac etc. seller if they can check it for you, all of them around here have a gauge in their trucks for testing. You might even luck out if the guy has a good used one for sale.



When working on the CX, the torque values are relatively low, about the best torque wrench out there is the Sears "click" wrench, that has a scale near the end of the handle where you can dial in the torque value. Relatively cheap at around $100 (comparable SnapOn, Mac etc. runs about 4 times that.)



If you don't use it much and don't want to spend that much, then the ONLY cheap torque wrench I'd ever trust is the beam type, it looks like this one:

A good one will run about $25, tops. A beam wrench can be off a bit, usually not much, the "click" wrenches in this price range are all junk IMHE.

 

[bear351c]

Buy a smaller torque wrench. 1/4" drive and calibrated in inch/pounds. Never have the problem again.

 

[cxlover]

I had one from autozone, it didn't click on and intake job I was doing on a windstart. So I used my gut and used someone else's matco dial torque wrench and sure enough mine was about 20 off. I threw it away immediately.



Don't cheap out on a torque wrench. You'll pay for it

 

[Shep]

I never use a torque wrench on M6 metric bolts.I use Knuckle Hand tight e.g using just the knuckle of the wrench and not the arm.Unless otherwise specified all the M6 bolts on these bikes are a max of 9 Ftlbs which is nothing.

On low torque bolts of this nature that I deem,"System Critical" such as Water pump impeller,and oil pump chain I use some Blue thread-lock.Also the two small bolts holding the Cam chain Top driven gear MUST have thread-lock applied as per the manual otherwise they can work loose making a similar sound to a worn cam-chain and can destroy the engine if they come away.

If ever you replace a Cam-chain and still get,"Cam-Chain Rattle" after some miles remove the engine and recheck those two small bolts.I speak from experience,not conjecture.





HTH

 

[Trickster]

I have torque wrenches in both inch pounds and foot pounds. Calibrated yearly and gently maintained.



I have broken bolts at the recommended torque setting, why? I ask a very reliable and knowledgeable



mechanic friend. He asked me, how old are the bolts? I said 30+ plus years. He said do you know how many



times and how hard they have been tightened over those years? Hmmm.....I got the point, they can get "Tired".



Local nut and bolt shop sees me a lot now, and really are not expensive to replace.

 

[Cobram]

And sometimes you get a defective bolt, this is the bolt that holds the stationary cam chain slider (guide), it came with the guide and kit. I didn't have a wrench on it when this happened, I was using a socket and a speed handle to snug it down before torqueing, and it snapped on me.

 

[Cruiser]

Ug...



So I would guess the moral of the story would be to get a inch pound torque wrench, have both your big and small ones calibrated, and

use brand new bolts when they are being used in a location you would rather not get back into any more than necessary...

 

[Trickster]

Yup, not sure how much money I have spent on EZ outs and screw extractors.