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Learned the hard way about torque wrenches and slip joints on a 737
Was doing a flap track replacement at LAX last spring and used my old Snap-on torque wrench on a slip joint fitting. Snapped the bolt at 180 inch-pounds because the joint had corrosion I didn't catch. Anyone else had a fastener fail from hidden rust on these?
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walker.max25d ago
Hidden rust on a slip joint fitting is a real pain, I've had it happen to me on a 737 flap track bolt too. One thing that helped me is using anti-seize compound on the threads before torquing, even on clean joints. And I always check the fitting bore for pitting with a mirror before reassembly, corrosion can hide in the slip joint groove where you can't see it. If the bolt came out with any resistance during removal, that's a dead giveaway the rust was already eating at it.
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alicesingh25d ago
Oh man, I gotta push back on this one. Corrosion might have been the final nail in the coffin, but your torque wrench was probably off (they drift over time, no joke) and that's the real culprit here. Even a little hidden rust shouldn't snap a bolt at only 180 inch-pounds on a 737 fitting unless something else was wrong with your setup.
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