Torque wrench to assemble necessary?

tlippy

Active Member
Harbor Freight has 1/4 inch one available for $20. Only thing I might need one for is the habdlebar stem. Overkill?
 
Cranks, seat post, brakes. If your going to do most of the upkeep yourself, why not. Amazon has them. Get metric hex sockets too.
 
Thanks for the tip. Headed out the door to Harbor Freight. Just got a notice that they have a 1/4" torque wrench on sale for $10 !!!! 3nm - 22nm should handle all settings necessary for our eBike
 
It'll be more accurate than me guessing. One time use for $10 works for me. PLUS it came with a ccertificare of +/- 4%.
That's fine for working on a bike... the one I got on Amazon was about the same price and have used it a few times, no problem. It's not rocket science!
 
I would recommend a torque wrench. Without one many of us tend to over tighten smaller fasteners and under tighten larger ones.

For bicycle work I'd recommend one setup for Nm rather than ft-lbs. Saves having to check a chart each time you want to use the wrench.
 
My wrenches all have d
I would recommend a torque wrench. Without one many of us tend to over tighten smaller fasteners and under tighten larger ones.

For bicycle work I'd recommend one setup for Nm rather than ft-lbs. Saves having to check a chart each time you want to use the wrench.
My wrenches all have different scales...
 
Most/all parts you'll be working with will be aluminum.
Not much flex with aluminum. Basically it breaks.
Thus the torque allowed is critical especially if you're working on a bike under warranty.
The proper tool is a good idea.
I went with the Topeak Lite NTX and the Pro Bike torque wrench mentioned above.
 
I agree that a newbie wrencher ought to use a torque wrench. Nothing worse than given a fastener one more tug and it suddenly goes loose.

Us old timers know how to re-tap for a bigger thread when that happens. Just kidding.
 
I just realised that a bigger wrench is needed for the crank arms.
speaking of the crank arms has anyone tried using a little Loctite blue on them? It helps keep bolts from vibrating or working loose but they can be removed with a wrench. The instructions don't call for it but I figure it wouldn't hurt
 
speaking of the crank arms has anyone tried using a little Loctite blue on them? It helps keep bolts from vibrating or working loose but they can be removed with a wrench. The instructions don't call for it but I figure it wouldn't hurt

It cannot hurt, but crank bolts are supposed to be torqued quite heavily, so they would not be vibrating loose if torqued correctly in the first place.
 
You'll probly notice that if you remove any factory installed fasteners they will have a "loctite" type of stuff on them. Most quality accessories that include fasteners will have it on them already. I encourage the blue loctite.
 
You'll probly notice that if you remove any factory installed fasteners they will have a "loctite" type of stuff on them. Most quality accessories that include fasteners will have it on them already. I encourage the blue loctite.
Yeah I have seen that on bolts on various things. I watched the assembly video on the R1up 700 series and it didn't look like it had it. I'll put a little bit on it when I put it together though
 
It cannot hurt, but crank bolts are supposed to be torqued quite heavily, so they would not be vibrating loose if torqued correctly in the first place.
I agree but I figure they're not bolts you remove often . Also belts and suspenders and all that....
 
You'll probly notice that if you remove any factory installed fasteners they will have a "loctite" type of stuff on them.

I can think of only two fasteners that always have thread lock: rotor bolts, and brake stud bolts (the bolts that fasten cantilever or linear pull brakes to the frame/fork). Occasionally it will be on derailleur pulley bolts or stem bolts, but this is not typical. Every other fastener is typically is going to have nothing.
 
Proper torque applied during assembly is never a bad idea.
Problem is that a good wrench is expensive and if you don't follow the procedure of use or have it calibrated at regular interval you're pretty much defeating it's purpose.
For those reasons I've somewhat trained myself to get a feel for fastener tightness over the years. I'm not suggesting that I can accurately tighten every faster to spec, but pretty much what I do assemble doesn't result in a problem.
So unless you're assembling a motor that requires stringent bolt sequencing and torque... I say wing it unless you are going to buy a good one, follow the instructions and keep it calibrated.

That said I typically tighten to maximum allowable torque'age

 
I went for roughly 40 or 50 years without using a torque wrench for most things but I like tools and now have 2 or 3 bike-oriented torque wrenches. It surprises me sometimes how little torque is recommended for some fasteners when I use a torque wrench. And I'm more comfortable with a torque wrench with relatively high-torque bolts.

I have weights and thermometers and other things certified for work so I know what it costs for them. I've never even priced recalibrating a torque wrench for myself. Except for fairly top-end wrenches it's likely to be cheaper to buy a new wrench, so I tend to trust the old ones to be within tolerances. I do have a lot of experience with nuts, bolts, and with wrenches though, so to some extent I think I'd have an idea of a wrench was too far off. Maybe not between 4 and 6 nm.

Loctite Blue is good stuff. I can't think of a situation where using wouldn't be a good idea.

TT
 
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