PSA: Stop torqueing drain plugs with your arm. Use a crow's foot.

I had 3 oil filter housing leaks in a row on the same Lycoming. Thought it was bad gaskets. Turned out I was overtorquing by like 15 ft-lbs because the angle was off with my ratchet. A crow's foot and a proper torque wrench got it perfect first try last week. Has anyone else chased their tail with arm-calibrated torque on hard-to-reach spots?

3 comments

3 Comments

ben_nguyen1mo ago

Bro, I've been there. Switched to a crows foot with a beam style torque wrench and never looked back, just mark the socket alignment first so you know your offset. Saved me a ton of headache on those hidden oil filter adapter bolts.

nora_dixon1mo ago

I had the exact opposite experience with crows foot wrenches man. I tried using one on a stuck bolt once and it just flexed and slipped off, damn near rounded the head clean off. Beam style torque wrenches are okay for basic stuff but the accuracy goes out the window if you're not at a perfect 90 degree angle with the fastener. Honestly I think the whole offset marking thing is overcomplicating a simple job. I'd rather just buy a good set of angled flex head ratcheting wrenches and use a click style torque wrench with a universal joint. It's way more forgiving and you don't have to do all that geometry homework before you even touch the bolt lol.

miamitchell11d ago

Gotta disagree a little on the universal joint idea, that introduces its own set of problems with torque accuracy. The flex in a u-joint can mess with the reading as much as a crows foot can, it's just less obvious. The real trick with crows foot wrenches is you don't even need a beam style, a click type works fine if you do the math right for the offset length. Marking the alignment is key though, you're right about that part, but the math isn't as hard as people make it out to be. It's basically just a ratio of the crows foot length to your wrench handle, then you multiply your target torque by that number.