Snapped a torque wrench on a Cessna 172 cylinder bolt

I was torquing down a cylinder base nut on a 172 out in Phoenix last summer, and the wrench just snapped clean at 150 in-lbs. Had to borrow a snap-off from the A&P next hangar over, cost me an extra hour and a bruised ego. Anyone else had a tool fail on a critical fastener?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_anthony22d ago

Call BS on this. That wrench was probably a Harbor Freight special or something you dropped one too many times. I've torqued a hundred 172 cylinders with the same Craftsman beam style for years. Never had one snap. You might have been using one of those click-type wrenches that goes out of spec after a couple drops. Or maybe you cross-threaded the nut and kept cranking. Phoenix heat doesn't help either, but a good tool handles it. Sounds like you got what you paid for.

tessa_roberts122d ago

Must have been the Harbor Freight heat stroke special then lol.