front axle to swivel ball bolts

[bobrick]

hi all

i was refitting my swivel balls on my defender rebuld today and i come across a unlikely crows foot in my toolbox.

as you may be aware these bolts are 14mm and 12pt so realistically you can only fit a 12pt ring spanner on them as there is no room for a socket. i have been thinking for the last 2 weeks how i could get around the problem of ensuring they are correctly torqued without having to spend £15-20 on a crows foot that i will only need once or not very often.

without being entirely sure i went up the workshop today and the solution presented itself when i collected the tools for the job together.

in most spanner rolls you come across a double ended off set ring spanner, 14mm on one end and 15mm the other end.

the 15mm end fits snugly onto a 3/8 drive torque wrench.

by measuring the length of this spanner and the length of your torque wrench you an calculate what torque setting to set the wrench to with the extension using this equation

set wrench to = (desired tq X wrench length)

(wrench length + extension length)

or go here for a nice litle calculator www.belknaptools.com/extcalc.asp

if you use this method ensure the estension and wrench are in a perfect straight line as the torque being applied will be affected if they are not

anyway i thought i would share this with you guys as i was really pleased with my improvisation at the time