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Saw a guy at the hangar torque a bolt dry and it made me cringe
He was working on a Cessna 172's cowling and didn't put a drop of oil on the threads before setting his wrench to 35 inch-pounds. I had to explain that the friction difference can make the actual clamp load way off, which he didn't learn in his A&P school. How many of you actually keep a small bottle of light oil in your kit for this?
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the_thomas1mo ago
Man, tell me about it. I had a buddy who used to dry-torque everything on his old pickup, claimed it was 'good enough.' Then one day he snapped off a header bolt because he didn't account for the binding. Your A&P guy got lucky you caught him.
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miamitchell25d ago
Hang on though - when you say "most stuff" are you including manifold bolts or suspension bolts where the threads might not be perfectly clean? I've seen guys get away with dry torque on engine internals for years but the second you hit a rusty thread or a bolt that's been torqued a few times already it bites you. What kind of stuff are you typically dry torquing where it works out fine for you?
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