Torque Wrench Upgrade

Illustration for article titled Torque Wrench Upgrade

Most folks use clicker, split-beam or digital torque wrenches these days. I’m a stubborn old man, and like to use old beam style wrenches. No moving parts or springs to break or wear out, and recalibrating simply involves bending the indicator beam until the needle points to zero at rest.

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The only problem is that they have a fixed head, which inhibits their application in areas with limited swing clearance. So I picked up a couple of Koken ratchet adapters from amazon.jp, which got delivered in just three business days. Reversible, 45 teeth and very smooth with almost no back drag. Now I can use these in about 95% of applications where I used to have to rely on some HF clicker types if I needed ratcheting. I might still need the clickers if there is a tight spot which precludes the extra depth the adapters take up, but that doesn’t come up too often on stuff I work on.