How Important Are Torque Settings ?

[Wacky Dee]

hey guys I'm just about to head out to my parents place to put a new radiator and a new fan clutch (the davies craig one) in. The fanclutch installation sheet has provided torque settings for the 4 bolts that bolt the clutch on to the water pump/engine/whatever.

But I have no torque wrench ... would it be safe to simply tighten them pretty tight without any accurate torque measurements?? Or should I pay $100+ for a torque wrench which I might never need again ..?

[BASHO]

hey guys I'm just about to head out to my parents place to put a new radiator and a new fan clutch (the davies craig one) in. The fanclutch installation sheet has provided torque settings for the 4 bolts that bolt the clutch on to the water pump/engine/whatever.

But I have no torque wrench ... would it be safe to simply tighten them pretty tight without any accurate torque measurements?? Or should I pay $100+ for a torque wrench which I might never need again ..?

On some things absolutely crucial on others not so much , as a general rule everything should be torqued that has an extremely low or high torque setting and common sense could apply to the rest, try to remember how tight the things are when you take them off when you reasemble is a start it's not a good rule of thumb but it's better then nothing.

I invested in a torque wrench years ago and replaced it when it got a bit old, I now use the old one for a breaker bar, if you aren't in a mechanical trade where you're doing bolt stuff all the time it's your call and your bucks if you get it wrong.

Once you have a torque wrench you'll always need it again.

[Wacky Dee]

I bought a torque wrench just this morning but its too big to fit between the engine and clutch to reach those 4 bolts ...ah well. It instantly became a father's day present and he's happy with it

There's no way a torque wrench will fit in there to do these bolts so I'll just have to try and get it as tight as possible without destroying anything ..

On an unrelated note ..changing the radiator too and I've noticed 90% of that foam that goes around the fan shroud edges is completely gonesky ...spoke to clark rubber and the bloke said they wouldn't have anything to suit, hmm.. any other places that might have it ?? Oh yeah ..old radiator, geezus ..80-90% of the cooling fins are completely blocked off with dirt, no wonder it couldn't cool for shit.

[Jmaac]

use,

mass = torque / (9.81 x radius)

this will give you an estimate of how much 'weight force' to put on the end of your wrench