Big sockets and torque wrenches

[RalphVa]

I lowered the hitch pins on my LX4 yesterday. It was quite an ordeal. First, I bought a 3/4" drive at the wrong store, Sears, at $50. Found them $30 at TSC. Second, I bought a 1 1/4" socket at Sears, about $14. They were about $7 at TSC.

The 1 1/4" socket on my LX4 hitch pin nut would NOT fit. That's what it measures. Think it's probably 32 mm, which is 1/4 mm larger than 1 1/4". Went to TSC to buy another socket. Their hitch pins nuts are exactly 1 1/4". One of their 1 1/4" wrenches fit them nicely. I bought a 1 5/16" socket.

Found no torque wrench good for the 433 ft-lb that the hitch pins are supposed to be set at, either at Sears or at TSC. Also, neither have metric sockets for 3/4" drive. Also, neither has 6 point sockets, which is what you really ought to be using for large nuts at high torques.

No torque multiplying wrenches or gizmos in Northern or TSC or Orsheln catalogs. Where does one get a torque multiplier bar for existing wrenches or a torque wrench for these higher torques.

TSC has their 1,000 ft-lb impact wrenches for sale locally, not their 550 ones. I'd need to buy a larger compressor to run one of those things.

Where to get proper tools? Anyone know what size nuts JD puts on their Canadian hitch pins?

I used a long crowbar attached to my 3/4" handle via 2 hose clamps. Grabbed a scissor jack handle to put into the hitch pin holes to keep from rotating. Wasn't very nice, but I got the bloody hitch pins lowered to where the dealer should have put them. Not properly torqued, of course.

Ralph

 

[Glenn9643]

Ralph,
For something like you describe I use a 4' long 1-1/2" steel cheater pipe over the drive handle to get all the torque I can apply. Not rocket science, but it works for a lot of simple applications.

 

[rdln]

1 wall to support 1 200lb male with 2 hands while jumping up and down with 2 feet on a on a 185 inch long 2 inch dia schedule 40 steel pipe = 433ft-lbs /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[JerryG]

I hate it when different manufactures use different fasteners. It is a real pain. As far as the torque goes, it is not critical. What is needed, is that it is tight enough that the nut won't come loose. If you want a torque wrench by all means go ahead and get one, but I wouldn't just for a lift pin.

 

[PineRidge]

We adjust our air impact wrench for the maximum setting and hammer it.

That's purely a figure of speech, keep the hammer in the toolbox. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[Wannafish]

"No torque multiplying wrenches or gizmos in Northern or TSC or Orsheln catalogs. Where does one get a torque multiplier bar for existing wrenches or a torque wrench for these higher torques."

Use a 4 ft long pipe slid over the Torque Wrench. 433 ft lbs divided by 4 ft = 108 ft. lbs. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[jinman]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Use a 4 ft long pipe slid over the Torque Wrench. )</font>

Ouch! /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif That poor torque wrench that only goes to about 200 ft-lb will NEVER recover from that. /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

Did you mean to put the pipe over the ratchet or breaker-bar?

 

[Bird]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Where does one get a torque multiplier bar for existing wrenches or a torque wrench for these higher torques. )</font>

Go to Google.com and enter "torque multiplier" and you'll find lots of them. But like the other guys said, I wouldn't pay what they cost. I'd just give a good hard pull on the breaker bar. /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

 

[markct]

why ya so upset ya spent more for craftsman, i know they arnt the best tools nowdays they have realy cheepend them up but there lifetime warranty!! you could put a 15 ft cheater on that breaker bar and bust it apart then take it back to sears and they wouldn give ya a new one no questions asked, i dont think TSC will do that, and the tools i have seen in TSC all looked to be made in china best i could tell. as for the tourque, a tourque multiplier is about 600 bucks, a length of pipe is well under ten and does the same job, only time i have ever seen those geared multipliers used was with tourque wrenches, and ya surely dont need a tourque wrench to tighted a lift pin, just some brute force and a small does of common sense

 

[Egon]

hammer it.

Ugh - there are sockets with an end set up for hammering on. Use them all the time on high pressure pipe flanges.

Egon /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif