The mechanic who said my torque wrench habit was a crutch

Last Tuesday I was at Blue Ridge Auto picking up gaskets and this old guy, Mike, watched me torque the valve cover on my 86 F150. He said I was wasting time, that 30 years he never torqued anything and only had one blown head gasket. I argued back, said factory specs exist for a reason. But now I'm second guessing. I snapped two bolts in the same intake manifold two months ago because I trusted the click without checking the bolt threads. That was my mess up, not the wrench. So is the habit the problem or is it my judgment? Has anyone else had a veteran shop guy tell you to ditch the tools you thought were saving you?

2 comments

2 Comments

oliverbailey20d ago

Mike's got thirty years of feel, but that don't mean his method works for everyone. Snapping those bolts wasn't the torque wrench's fault, it was skipping the thread check, which is on you but not on the tool. I'd keep the wrench, just add a rule to clean and inspect threads first, that's the real lesson here.

logan_thomas8720d ago

Agree with @oliverbailey, the wrench didn't snap those bolts, bad threads did. Clean em first, then torque.