On Mon, 24 Oct 2011 14:19:13 -1000, dsi1
wrote:

On 10/24/2011 2:10 PM, jim beam wrote:
On 10/24/2011 01:59 PM, dsi1 wrote:
On 10/24/2011 9:13 AM, Gunner Asch wrote:

I always use antiseize on my lug nuts and tighten them down by hand.
Ive never found a need to torgue them to any set range. And they come
off reasonably well also.

I just lean on the socket/breaker bar to tighten the nuts. My friend
always insists on using a torque wrench which is a drag. It's better to
develop a feel for torque for most nuts/bolts. Not all of them, of
course. :-)

good luck on that delusion of adequacy. if you've ever tested your
torques using this method vs the torque wrench, you'll find two things:

1. you're way off - seldom does even an experienced mechanic get within
20% of actual.

2. they're entirely inconsistent nut to nut.

even a $35 torque wrench from woolmort can give you better results than
that.

all this may be less relevant on a 50's chevy pickup, but it's an issue
on many modern cars - see n8n's response.

My guess is that most mechanics don't use a torque wrench to tighten a
nut/bolt.

More do now than used to in my day (pre-1985) due to the thinner POS
disk brake rotors. They distort if the lugs aren't snugged the same.

In the olde dayes, we'd run them up with the impact, check the torque,
and set our guns (to find 90ft/lbs) so we'd always know they were the
same. It was probably good to +-10lbs.

--
It is characteristic of all deep human problems that they are
not to be approached without some humor and some bewilderment.
-- Freeman Dyson