Torque Wrench options

[7thgear]

Originally Posted by FRiSson

THanks... lots of good advice here, and some weirdly violent responses.

So, I only want to make a reasonable investment, what do I need?

1) Low profile floor jack

- correct, preferably alumnimum (it will cost more upfront but you'll be glad for many years to come)

2) Lug nut wrench or socket wrench?
- yes, what's known as a breaker bar, you can spend cash and get a dedicated one with a large handle or a small one and just use a pipe, either works, make sure it's 1/2" socket for added durability.

3) Torque wrench: beam or click type?

- i'd go the click type route, there are also some electronic ones but i don't know enough about them to have an opinion.

[OrbitalEllipses]

CDI Torque click-type torque wrench. CDI makes all of Snap-On's torque wrenches, but can be bought at more reasonable prices.

[zoomzoomers]

Originally Posted by 7thgear

actually that's not what i said

arm-powered torque wrench meaning the clicking variety that you turn with.. your hands!

you still need a tool that is designed to measure torque, just not in the cordless variety because the variance in power output is too great a variable when you want to be accurate

if you're torquing your nuts "by feel" then i'm sorry to inform you you're part of the minority here and your to-murder list is gonna be pretty long.

Only my girl gets to torque my nuts by feel!

Anyway, back to the OP question. So what is a good torque wrench? I've seen cheap ones and have I've seen expensive ones. Any recommendations on a good affordable one?

[BillY2KFRC]

I just bought this one, works great:

http://www.harborfreight.com/1-2-hal...rench-239.html

They also have a great price on a low profile floor jack for lowered cars:

http://www.harborfreight.com/low-pro...eel-68049.html

You'll want a breaker bar as other have said to remove the lug nuts, rather than using the torque wrench for that job.