pfbmgd
Well-known member
I used to do much of the work myself . Adjust valves and change tires do an oil change . On my Vrod I did the oil as it was out of warranty . Now I just take it in and let a small shop do it .
|
|
|
How Many Of You Have Been Forced To Become Amateur Mechanics?
- Thread starter Pegassus
- Start date
I've been a machinist, millwright and heavy industrial mechanic/technician for 41 years. I have seen all types of horrors so nothing surprises me anymore.
Where I used to work we had to calibrate torque wrenches before and after each use with an accelerometer and enter the tool number, accelerometer tool number, torque steps and sequence in our work report.
Given your experience, how accurate would you expect a home mechanics torque wrench to be?
Sent from my Redmi 7A using Tapatalk
Without an accelerometer it's anyone's guess. I would expect a snap-on product to be superior to a Canadian tire tool.
Having said that, an un-abused and good condition torque wrench is better than no torque wrench or just guessing.
My personal torque wrenches are only left in the "on" position and are never used to remove fasteners.
Also I ensure the wrench is backed off (but not too far) all the way to "0" before storage (in a dry wooden box).
At work I played with guessing (for my own educational experience) and found I wasn't even close to the proper torque value. Having said that, it gets worse as the torque value increases. One may get fairly close with inch/lbs or a few F/lbs but if it say 400f/lbs (not that it applies to motorcycles) then your asking for trouble without a calibrated torque wrench and associated torque multipliers imo.
I hope this helps.
BTW I don't calibrate my personal torque wrenches (but probably should) and haven't had any adverse effects or problems thus far. If I dropped or misfortune happened to my torque wrench then I likely would take it in for calibration.
Disclaimer: The above does not preclude the use of thread locking agents or lock washers if required.
You don't calibrate torque wrenches with an accelerometer. Possibly load cell, possibly strain gauge, not accelerometer.
For those at home, clamp a socket securely in a vise with the drive out the side. Put the torque wrench in horizontally. Gather a known weight at a known distance and set the torque wrench to that ft-lbs value. Hopefully you can get this close to the torque value you are going to use the wrench for. With the weight hanging, it should just click and one finger should be able to reset it (or just read value if not using a click-type). One of mine was out 30% before. No idea how or why, it just happened once, adjusted the calibration and it has been good since. The best theory I have is something wasn't assembled quite right and dropped into place reducing spring pressure. This isn't perfect as your distance could be off, you aren't using calibrated weights etc, but you can double check most of those (eg measure weights on multiple scales, draw lines on your torque wrench and label with req'd weight for common values etc). It is a hell of a lot better than just relying on perpetual accurate calibration of your torque wrench.
So you're calling the entire nuclear industry liars? We most certainly use an accelerometer station to calibrate torque wrenches. If I didn't then I would have been terminated decades ago.
Perhaps your definition of an accelerometer and ours is different?
I have also uses various types of accelerometers for vibration analysis.
Ya can though/
F = m x a
so a = F / m
Use a known mass
a = 9.8 meters/sec/sec
Solve for F
I have a simple formula to know if it's worth it to take my bike (or car) to a mechanic or do it myself. If I make $30 an hour at my normal job and a mechanic is going to charge me $100 for a 1 hr job in labor I rather do it myself then. I will be making triple the money I make at my company. I consider this going to work part-time on a Saturday getting paid triple time. I rather employ myself than employ a mechanic.
On the other hand if the job will take me 2 hours and a mechanic can do it in 15 mins for $40 then I will take it to a shop, it's not worth my time and pain. For example changing the tires on a new rim. I will save money plus my sweat & knuckles.
Last edited:
TK4
Well-known member
Pi are round, cake are squared
So you are accelerating a mass to check the calibration of a torque wrench? I guess that could work but seems to be a strange roundabout way to get there.
Torque wrench calibration stations I have seen were static (eg they displayed torque but did not move perceptibly).
I'm not quite wrapping my head around it either nor can I find a single shred of info online about using an accelerometer as part of the process.
I wonder if you could provide further theory/calculation behind this or even a visualization - how to measure a static moment arm using dynamic measuring tools? I only have rudimentary knowledge/education around this, but it seems like it introduces several unecessary factors into the equation (which would only increase the chance for error.)
But a and F are not constant in this scenario as it's not moving in a straight line? As it moves around a point, the moment angle changes.
I don't know what I'm going to do when Rosey Teds retires or dies. He is my favorite, he is the closest to my house and he is always joking how my wife tells him I'm a nice guy "while they are both in the shower" LOL
The quality of mechanics is going down. They are dumb and becoming lazier, avoiding big jobs.
How can I trust a bike mechanic that doesn't know that grease goes on TTY head bolts? I once had problems with the gearbox of my Yamaha 250 XT dual-sport, went to a well-known mechanic shop at Lakeashore Ave W, or the Queensway, forgot where now, the shop had 4 mechanics. When I told them my problem they simply told me they couldn't do that type of job, what? And you guys are full-blown bike mechanics??
I ended up going to Ted Roseys later where this old white guy with a full bear and pony tail did an excellent job fixing the gear box (Not Ted, his helper).
Last edited:
slowbird
Well-known member
Wow old thread revival.
I've had to learn how to wrench on my bikes after having too many bad experiences with bike techs.
Back when I first started riding many moons ago I got a new chain and sprockets installed on my old VF500. Shortly after I got the bike back I started losing bolts/nuts around the back of the bike from things not being torqued down properly.
Same bike, before heading out on a bike trip I take it to a shop that used to be in Streetsville. I tell him the Honda pads I installed are squeaking a lot. He waves it off and says it's normal. I know its not and tell him to look at them anyways. He says fine but assures me nothing s wrong (before he even looks at it)
I also ask him to inspect the bike and do an oil change. He recommends Full synthetic oil for my ancient and old high mileage bike that's never seen Full synthetic in it's life. I tell him no, just put in normal oil or Semi-synthetic if he can't find anything else but under no circumstances should he put in full synthetic.
He calls me later that day and is like "Wow those brakes are squeaking a lot! That's not normal." Yeah no **** dummy. I have him replace the pads and when I go pickup the bike he explains how he put full synthetic oil in the bike because it was cheaper.
I posted on here about it back then and he was totally clueless as to why you shouldn't put Full Synthetic into old engines or even as to why he should have listened to what the customer wanted.
Took me a lot of work pulling the bike apart to change all of the gaskets that started leaking oil after that.
Now if I need work done I can't do (i.e. tire changes, safetys etc etc) I either go to Pro6 or Platinum Powersports (Because Rob and Donald are incredibly knowledgeable and awesome)
I've had to learn how to wrench on my bikes after having too many bad experiences with bike techs.
Back when I first started riding many moons ago I got a new chain and sprockets installed on my old VF500. Shortly after I got the bike back I started losing bolts/nuts around the back of the bike from things not being torqued down properly.
Same bike, before heading out on a bike trip I take it to a shop that used to be in Streetsville. I tell him the Honda pads I installed are squeaking a lot. He waves it off and says it's normal. I know its not and tell him to look at them anyways. He says fine but assures me nothing s wrong (before he even looks at it)
I also ask him to inspect the bike and do an oil change. He recommends Full synthetic oil for my ancient and old high mileage bike that's never seen Full synthetic in it's life. I tell him no, just put in normal oil or Semi-synthetic if he can't find anything else but under no circumstances should he put in full synthetic.
He calls me later that day and is like "Wow those brakes are squeaking a lot! That's not normal." Yeah no **** dummy. I have him replace the pads and when I go pickup the bike he explains how he put full synthetic oil in the bike because it was cheaper.
I posted on here about it back then and he was totally clueless as to why you shouldn't put Full Synthetic into old engines or even as to why he should have listened to what the customer wanted.
Took me a lot of work pulling the bike apart to change all of the gaskets that started leaking oil after that.
Now if I need work done I can't do (i.e. tire changes, safetys etc etc) I either go to Pro6 or Platinum Powersports (Because Rob and Donald are incredibly knowledgeable and awesome)
I do all my own too but just so I know who to blame
Weak jk
If you are willing to get your hands dirty, there are lot of stuff you can do.
and willing to buy new part if u f'k up
slowbird
Well-known member
Weak jk
If you are willing to get your hands dirty, there are lot of stuff you can do.
and willing to buy new part if u f'k up
I do 99% of my wrenching now. But that's all thanks to the bad experiences with those bike mechanics I mentioned earlier.
when the torque is high, lube is needed and it's time to send the apprentice to the tool crib for a quart of maidens oil and just to safe a box of bubbles too.
|
|
|
|
|