Decades ago, I was taught the (roughly) correct torque for any nut/bolt was the maximum force you could put on the correct size spanner with two fingers.

I n my long undistinguished and intermittent mechanical meanderings I've never been very concerned about torque.

Not sure, but I think the last time I used a torque wrench was the last time I took a cylinder head off, on a BMC 1800 Maarina maybe 40 years ago,

I'm thinking about it a bit now though, and I'm pretty sure that most if not all of the fastners I have put on by feel have been MUCH less tight than the "official" torque specs, yet my wheels havnt fallen off.

Your rule of...er...The Two Fingers seems to be in line with this.

I'm fairly sure that would be A LOT less than 40Nm in the case of the above cam pulley bolt, and if I tried to apply 40Nm with 2 fingers I'd probably dislocate them.

I still pretty sure a torque setting is optional for just about everything except head bolts and (maybe) cam and crank bolts

Edited by edlithgow on 15/08/2023 at 11:01

I still pretty sure a torque setting is optional for just about everything except head bolts and (maybe) cam and crank bolts

I also have a cheapo torsion beam type, probably nearly 50yrs old now. I use it for wheel nuts, to ensure I can remove them if puncture, and spark plugs, to ensure I don't strip the head's aluminium thread. Give or take 5 ftlb is precise enough for me.

I ensure I can remove wheel nuts by greasing the studs and latterly, (for the last 10 years or so) putting polythene sheet on them too, which I think has a nylock stylee effect

Never used a torque wrench on them, but I did recently come across the torque spec, which was pretty high, even if its intended to be a dry spec,

(Though if it is, since I'm not ever doing them dry, I suppose I could cut it by 25%. Or something. None of the std lubrication "adjustment" tables include polythene sheet of course, which, if it IS like Nyloc, puts additional torsional stress on the fastner, so we might be back where we started, er, roughly)

65-87 ft lbs. Since the lug wrench in the toolkit is probably only about a foot long, thats about equivalent to the same weight, or about 36kgs, 18 kgs a finger with the 2-finger rule above.

Thats gotta huyt

In the above cam sprocket bolt case, if my sums are right thats about 10kgs a finger. Not sure I could do that either.

Perhaps we have to apply an arthritis factor to account for the time elapsed since apprenticeship.

I just snug wheel nuts up with one hand, giving me the option of two hands and a cheater pipe when taking them off

I might do a comparison sometime, if idle curiosity compells

Never seen any need to use a torque wrench on spark plugs either, though I do now see a need to make very sure I don;t cross-thread them (again), which sadly a torque wrench would probably not have prevented.

Edited by edlithgow on 16/08/2023 at 00:43