A 20 year diesel tech told me to stop using the torque wrench like a ratchet and I still think about it

Terry Hernandez · 2026-09-30T08:10:02.765713+00:00

Was torquing head bolts on a 6.0 Powerstroke about 6 months ago at the shop and an old timer named Ray watched me run them all the way down with the torque wrench instead of snugging with a ratchet first. He told me flat out that I was going to wreck the calibration and that a torque wrench is for the final pull, not for spinning bolts down. Now I hand snug everything with a regular ratchet and only click the wrench on the last pass, and my numbers have been dead on since. Anyone else get taught that the hard way or does everyone figure this out on their own?

Talk Freely

Loading…

A 20 year diesel tech told me to stop using the torque wrench like a ratchet and I still think about it | Auto Mechanics - Talk Freely