Spent 8 months torquing head bolts on radial engines by feel before a senior mechanic caught me

Guy pulled me aside after I finished a Pratt & Whitney R-985 and showed me the torque wrench calibration sticker was 6 months expired, which made me realize I had been relying on muscle memory instead of checking the tool itself, and now I'm wondering how many other basic checks do we all let slide around here?

3 comments

3 Comments

theaward27d ago

R-985s are tough to torque by feel.

paulw6327d ago

Man, I had a buddy who snapped a stud on one of those and spent the whole weekend drilling it out. Ended up just buying a new jug in the end.

derek_ramirez27d ago

You're right, torque by feel on R-985s is a guessing game sometimes. What worked for me was marking the wrench position with a paint pen before starting so I had a visual reference. It saved me from overthinking it and kept things consistent across all the cylinders.