I just received my Spoon X-brace in the mail (actually it was sitting on my front porch for 2-3 days but I never enter the front door).

I haven't installed it yet because my old faithful torque wrench was ruined by a neighbor who used it as a cheater bar. I read here (since the documents accompanying the brace are all in Japanese) that I should torque the new bolts to 30 ft-lbs.

Does anyone know how critical this value is? Is "torquing" really required (i.e. should I take the word of a guy called "SuperStud" on serious engineering issues)? Does anyone have a recommendation for a high-value torque wrench? I'm thinking of just buying the Craftsman and be done with it (life is too short to do too much shopping around).

Regards,

Al in Dallas

 

Using a torque wrench is not important on these fasteners if you have a good 'feel', but if you don't do it often or tend to over/under tighten stuff, go buy one. A Craftsman is fine for all the stuff we do.. if you get into rebuilding driveline components you might want a different one.

 

i thought the torque setting was 36 pounds?

 

Per the Helm's manual (I believe its on page 20-113, but dont have it in front of me), the torque is 28 lb/ft.....36 lb/ft is for the strut bar.

 

Go buy a Kobalt torque wrench. Kobalt is made by Snap-on (I know not the EXACT same but the fact remains that they are produced along side each other) and I have found the quality to be on par with my Facom torque wrench (top of the line in europe 500.00) at 1/5th the cost. Find it at Lowes.
Mark

 

search for 'spoon torque setting'
this is what you'll find.

 

Malachi, "Master Librarian of the S2000 Domain"

 

I just received my Spoon brace as well, so yesterday I did searches for previous threads on the subject. The consensus seemed to be 28-29 ft-lbs (or more specifically 28.8) as translated from the metric value on the installation instructions.

Other info that might be useful is that you need an 8mm male hex driver for the Spoon bolts.


Chris, do you mind sharing some torque wrench advice?

Since my torque wrench has apparently walked away, I was in Sears looking them over last night. There seem to be the old fashioned, lifetime-warranteed, bar-indicator type ($25), and the newer dial-on-the-handle, 3-month-warranteed type ($70-150).

I always used the old type in the past. My impression is that they work by monitoring flex of the handle as it relates to the rotaional force on the head. Advantage: simple, non-mechanical, long-lived. Disadvantage: lower values have relatively low resolution.

The higher end ones "appear" to have higher resolution settings, but I have to admit I don't know how they work. Disadvantage seems to be cost and that they may need frequent calibration.

For most work (lug nuts, fluid drain plugs, structural bolts is the bar-type useful enough? (I'm thinking for most applications the difference between 20 and 40 ft-lbs is not critical, but the difference between 20 and 100 ft-lbs is) Or would you recommend investing in the higher-end, apparently higher resolution type? Thanks in advance!

 

Jeez, people have fast brains and fingers here...

Thanks Malachi, that's the info I was looking at last night.

Any other torque wrench advice is appreciated.

 

i prefer the traditional model of torque wrench, but mostly because the only of the "new" models i would trust would be Snap-on or Griot's and i simply cannot afford them.

just my $0.02 worth.