<VV> Rebuild II

[Stephen Upham]

Well, I'm getting a good little mechanic's life lesson today.  The 
torque wrench that I bought is for inch pounds.  The one I need is for 
foot pounds.  I went back down to the garage and noticed that the Great 
Neck wrench that I had previously purchased in April was a foot pounds 
1/2 inch drive.  Now, I realize this is the self same wrench that I 
thought was responsible for the stripping of two of my case bolts back 
in April (fiddle farted around and failed to return it within 90 days) 
and so I thought; hell, maybe I did something wrong last time.  Maybe I 
can complete this plastigage job using the wrench (now) collection that 
I have.  Everything went fine from 20 to 40 lbs.  When I stepped up to 
53 for the final  torque, it seemed as though it was over torquing.  I 
reset the wrench to 45 to check if it was there yet, and it checked out 
ok.  I stepped to the front of the garage to reset to 50 to try to see 
if it had reached that yet, when I heard the (now) unmistakable sound 
of a bolt/nut thread giving way on #1 bolt; the only one I had tried to 
tighten to 53.  Now, it's off to Sears again to trade my inch pounds 
wrench for a foot pounds wrench to see if it was a faulty wrench or 
weak bolts.  Geeeezzzz.


Stephen Upham