OK - so I got a great deal on a SwitchBlade windshield and mounting system. Genius here even invests in a torque wrench to make sure he gets the 4mm hex nuts tight just like the directions say.

I was only up to 15 ft/lb of torque on one, and the damned hex driver snapped in two! Well, back to Sears to get a new one - they'll replace tools for free, you know!

So, maybe I wasn't using the torque wrench right.... Parked the bike under a tree in the Sears parking lot and looked over the torque wrench instructions. Hmmm... nothing there.... for kicks, I figured I'd look back at the windshield mounting instructions.

Uh Oh.... recommended torque is 50-75 INCH-POUNDS, not FOOT LBS! Crap. Here I was hauling on the wrench wondering why I couldn't get up to 50 ft/lbs, putting little dents in the fork cover, etc.

Bottom line - yes, I broke the mounts. Found a replacement on eBay for under $75, shipped, but that's $75 I wouldn't have had to spend if I'd paid better attention to the directions. Dumbass.

Hope nobody else makes that same stupid mistake.

Andrew

Inch lbs, foot lbs... ya never know! Your not the first, and you won't be the last. My previous life I was a Quality Assurance Inspector on Aircraft and I watched way too many experienced mechanics grab the wrong torque wrench. Sometimes I would wait until they put it on the nut before I would ask them "how tight?"

Experience is a bitch!

That's why I never read the instructions ... and don't use torque wrenches (on non-internal engines stuff).

Doc

iv'e got the same shield, and i thought when i saw a torque callout for sure that it would be in foot lbs.....but no i had to go get an in-lbs wrench. sorry to hear about your misfortune.....bet you won't do something like that EVER AGAIN!!!

Old mechanics way. Visualize the size of the fastener and the thread pitch while you are torquing. Using common sense, determine how much torque you think a particular fastener will handle before pulling the threads.

DocShadow wrote:
That's why I never read the instructions ... and don't use torque wrenches (on non-internal engines stuff).

Doc


X2......BB

I have been a professional airplane mechanic my entire life. There are a few critical things for which I use a torque wrench but in general I don't bother using one.

Clifford

Same here... I know that most fasteners, regardless of what torque is called for, does not require a wrench to get it right... and those that do... I use the wrench for those fasteners only!

I torque auto wheel lug nuts, because the fool garage mechanics usually way over tighten those... and most any kind of engine components.

I've used a torque wrench twice on the R*...once for the front pulley and once for the rear axle. I try never to over-tighten...it's by feel. Although my feelings must have been pretty crappy the last time I took the carb off, because I had to go buy an easy-out today because I found out at 11:45 last night that the hole in the stupid hex screw on the 0-clamp that fastens the carb to the manifold rounded out...

One more of the famous "Play-Doh grade" Yamaha fasteners I'm replacing, one by one, out of the way...

RK

Hey Darn,
I was QA on H53's in the Navy. What did you work on?