Bird & Andy: Perfectly true. Thanks for the reminder. For that matter, I seem to recall that torque specs are for new threads and readings are taken when the bolt is moving.
I picked up the idea of greasing threads from my father, an A&E mechanic, during a nightmarish experience when I first started working on the family car. Seized bolts or fatigued threads in castings can be problems of tragic proportion. Well, when you're a kid, lots of things are of tragic proportion. However, years later, bolts do come off without taking the threads with them, if the threads were lubricated-- thus reducing tragedy in the world.
I learned later about things that require definite torquing and tightening sequences. Hope I would have remembered if I was tightening a head. Of course, I'd also probably remember that using new head bolts is a good idea.
When I think about it, I guess there's really no substitute for having a good mechanics feel. There's so many qualifications to torque specs that they may not actually apply to many repair tear-downs and reassembles. However, my feel does seem to be a bit rusty. I checked the thermostat housing bolts after a few hours on the tractor. They were pretty loose.
Of course there's feel and then there's FEEL. The owner of a BSA shop where I did piece work used to laugh at us junior mechanics. He says: 'How can you expect to make any money if you spend all your time measuring things. I can't charge customers for your micrometers and dial indicators?' He says: 'Just wiggle the parts and you can tell if they're in tolerance,' and he was always right. Never had that sort of 'feel.' Wish I did.
