I probably should have posted in the General Do It Yourself section, but due to the lack of responses there I thought I would post with the Dyna crew. I don't trust my torque wrench (Sears Craftsman Digi Torque) and wondered if anyone knows of a way to test one. Thanks for any help.

 

Large firms will have some sort of test equipment for checking regularly. Do you know a car or bike mechanic who uses a torque wrench who might be able to test yours, even if it is against a high quality one he uses? Or a pal with a Snap-on!

 

Mine came with a directions to send it back to Sears to be calibrated when needed. What makes you think it's off ?

 

It's not breaking, even at low settings.

 

Unfortunately, no.

 

A couple of times when I have wondered about the accuracy of my torque wrench I have "compared" it to another good quality torque wrench to see how the two compared. Couple the two wrenches together and set them to the same value. The should both "break" at or near the same setting.

One caution, some folks get used to double click torque wrenches. All of mine are Snap On beam type wrenches that only click one time.

I also make it a point to lower the torque setting on the wrench to it's lowest value when they are stored and set them for the desired value when using them. Sometimes I will "break" the wrench at the desired setting once in the vise before torquing fasteners, especially at lower inch pound settings.

 

I found a few links when I was looking at testing mine, check out
http://www.dieseldoctor.com/messageboard/data/229.html
http://www.stockcarracing.com/howto/...nch/index.html


Or you can find a shop/company nearby that will calibrate it. I have a few near me that will do it. I don't know what the price is like, but do a google search and see what comes up in your area for torque wrench calibration or tool calibration. Some manufacturers will have a calibration program where you can send the tool back to them for cal.

I bought mine at an Ace hardware, and the floor manager had no idea how to get it cal'd.

 

Thanks for the help, I think I will see if I can borrow another wrench to compare to and also give the vise test a try.

 

I googled torque wrench calibration and this is one suggestion that came up:

Why not just clamp the square of the torque wrench (where the sockets attach) in a vise, and hang weights from the grip? Torque = force x distance, and both are known, if you measure the distance from the center of the square to the grip pivot.

 

No local folks came up from the google search for local calibration, but see above suggestion from the internet search.