Spec me a torque wrench

thedazman67

thedazman67

thedazman67

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Joined
24 Apr 2004
Posts
2,059
Location
Warrington, UK
Since i've got my 200sx i've been doing all of the performance modification and servicing myself. As a result i've built up an extensive toolset the only thing i dont have is a torque wrench, i've just had a quick look on the halfords website and there a three to choose from but with different torque ratings.

What do you think will be the best all purpose torque wrench. It doesnt have to be from halfords but i have been more than impressed with their professional series so far.

Halfords link
http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/...nce||Workshop+&+Tools||Tools||Torque+Wrenches

Cheers

Daz
 
tbh i think you need two as a bare minimum

a 3/8 drive to do from c.10nm - c.80nm. something very accurate. at those ranges, youre more likely to be breaking stuff

then a 1/2 drive one that will go from under 100nm to c.200nm (for wheel nuts, suspension bits etc)

for the low range stuff i got the draper one
 
Linky

I've got that, served me brilliantly when restoring my motorbike and you can't beat that value! There's some decent socket sets on there too :)
 
I got the Draper one based on Matt82s recommendation and it seems very well put together. Doesn't seem as good quality as a Sealey one i had before it (that turned out to be faulty, never buy ex-display from ebay) but the sealey is twice the price so its to be expected.

I now have a 1/2" one which is nice and long for the big stuff and a 3/8" one for the smaller jobs.
 
Well.

Ive got two halfords torque wrenches.

They are made by Norbar who are one of the best if you know your tools.

For the price they are very good. Not as durable as the all steel £250 Snap on ones.

When I tested the Norbar/Halfords ones against the Snap Ons in terms of accuracy they were identical !

If you have the trade card, price comes down to £39. Good value, not often you can say that about Halfords.

.. Remember, always store your torque wrench set to zero. Helps preserve accuracy.

Edit: The Halfords come with a Calibration Cert too, which is always useful.

I'd go for them, for the price they are excellent.
 
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the halfords ones put me off, cause of the ratchet on the end, you have to flip it over to change its direction... small but it'd annoy me. expensive too. usually i'm a big fan of halfords tools though

have a look at screwfix and machine mart for alternatives
 
The flipping it over is a good feature.

Plenty of wrenches do not have bidirectionality.

Its not something thats there because its cheap and nasty.
 
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Capt-Cuckoo said:
Well.

Ive got two halfords torque wrenches.

They are made by Norbar who are one of the best if you know your tools.

For the price they are very good. Not as durable as the all steel £250 Snap on ones.

When I tested the Norbar/Halfords ones against the Snap Ons in terms of accuracy they were identical !

If you have the trade card, price comes down to £39. Good value, not often you can say that about Halfords.

.. Remember, always store your torque wrench set to zero. Helps preserve accuracy.

Edit: The Halfords come with a Calibration Cert too, which is always useful.

I'd go for them, for the price they are excellent.
Click to expand...

You've pretty much convinced me to go get a halfords one. I have a trade card too.

BUT that screw fix one is ONLY £12!!!! mhmmmmmmm
 
Mark A said:
I got the Draper one based on Matt82s recommendation and it seems very well put together. Doesn't seem as good quality as a Sealey one i had before it (that turned out to be faulty, never buy ex-display from ebay) but the sealey is twice the price so its to be expected.

I now have a 1/2" one which is nice and long for the big stuff and a 3/8" one for the smaller jobs.
Click to expand...

one of the clubgti guys i know has the same 3/8 drive draper as us, he has had his for about 5 years. they took them in for calibration, his was still within range.

the calibration place was saying its all down to the level of quality of the internals. the halfords, teng, norbar ones are great, but the halfords shares most of the important bits on the inside, making it accurate etc but its a lot cheaper
 
thedazman67 said:
I need to get me one of those trade cards whats involved ?
Click to expand...

Go in and ask for one, might ask you for some proof of being in the motor trade though.

Your live/work in Preston though dont you? If your struggling, i have a trade card and could meet you after work one night, work down on the docks and finish at 5.

Email me if you need to.
 
MrMatteh said:
why do none (or very few) of the normal ratchets you can buy offer it then?
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Standard ratchets are not designed for tightening fasteners up to large torque values (though clearly many people don't appear to realise that), so the ratchet mechanism doesn't have to be made as robust. Getting rid of the reversing mechanism allows the ratchet to be made far stronger.

Typically you will be using a torque wrench only to tighten. On the rare occasions you need to loosen something, or tighten a left hand thread it's really not a big deal to flip the socket around. FWIW I think the current Halfords torque wrench is very well made (unlike some of their earlier ones) and far better then the cheaper Drapers etc.
 
Berger said:
Go in and ask for one, might ask you for some proof of being in the motor trade though.

Your live/work in Preston though dont you? If your struggling, i have a trade card and could meet you after work one night, work down on the docks and finish at 5.

Email me if you need to.
Click to expand...

I do work in Preston yeah, thanks for the offer very kind of you i might just take you up on that soon :)
 
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