Can anyone recommend a decent torque wrench for our uses on H-D's?
I have always used a "seat of the pants" approach, but now it comes to my attention rather suddenly......I need a torque wrench to be sure.

Do I need a foot pound unit or an inch pound unit?
3/8th" drive?

 

Get these during Sears black friday, should be half off then:

http://www.craftsman.com/craftsman-1...9&blockType=G9

http://www.craftsman.com/craftsman-m...3&blockType=G3

You will need both of them working on your bike. They're no Snap-On but they've done everything I've needed them for so far.

 

I like my Kobalt from Lowes better than the Craftsman one I had, it is all metal where the Craftsman had a lot of plastic parts.

 

I have a husky 3/8 drive one it works really well. Home Depot i think

 

Snap On. 30 to 200 inch lbs, 20 to 100 foot lbs. For anything over 100 ft lbs I borrow one from the shop.

 

I two Harbor Freight torque wrenches:
1/4 drive that has a range of 20-200 in/lb
3/8 drive that has a range of 5-80 ft/lb.
They were very inexpensive, but seem to work very well. I'm happy with them.

I also have a Craftsman 1/2" torque wrench that has a range of 20-200 ft/lb
The one I have is more of a top of the line professional model, and it works very well.

You will at least need a 1/4" drive in in/lb, and a 3/8 drive in ft/lb., which will cover most stuff you would typically do yourself. A 1/2" drive comes in handy too for bigger stuff sometimes.
If you don't already have them, buy a good set of allen bits and torx bits to go with those torque wrenches..

You don't need to spend an arm and a leg on torque wrenches to get descent ones, but if you want professional models and high quality stuff you're going to pay for it. Snap-On is the best IMO.

 

Thanks everyone.....exactly what I needed......choices!!

 

Be aware that if you buy the Craftsman, that the torque wrenches do not come with the lifetime warranty that Craftsman hand tools come with. It does work fine though. I have the 3/8th drive one.

 

Harbor Freight is great for many tools, but I personally wouldn't trust a torque wrench from them. Their tools are usually cheaper because the quality isn't there. End wrenches, sockets, screwdrivers... sure, Harbor Freight stuff is fine. But I have my 1/2" & 3/8" drive Snap-On torque wrenches for when I want something torqued down.

 

You might want to do a google search on torque wrench accuracy. I'm not going to make any claims as to the accuracy of any brand, but there are people out there who have tested different wrenches for accuracy. In general, the consensus seems to be that a torque wrench is most accurate in the middle 80% of its range (i.e. on a 20-100 lb/ft wrench, you should use it in the 36 - 84 lb/ft range).

The above is all second hand information, but I trust the sources. Of course, on the flip side, probably any torque wrench is better than using none at all.