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August 27, 2008 / Wednesday
Tire Rotation Adventures
A couple weekends ago, while trying to rotate the tires on my car, I got stuck. Stuck, as in, the bolts on the wheel I'd had replaced last February would not come off. Freakin' bolts! I'm coming back with a pipe!
Off to OSH we went, where after much waiting, we procured a three foot pipe. Aaron worried that my 1/2" drive 12 point sockets would strip the bolts with that much torque, so we converted to a 3/8" drive 6 point socket instead. The setup: socket, adapter, extension, ratchet, pipe. Apply force.
To our chagrin, the bolt didn't budge, and instead the adapter ripped into two pieces. Well, isn't that just lovely?
Today, I took my car back to the tire shop to ask them to loosen and retorque the bolts to spec. I watched them do it by hand, and the guy seemed to have a pretty easy time of it. Why, then, did we have so much trouble? I'm guessing it's because my ratchet didn't have long enough of a lever arm, and although the pipe took care of that problem, we introduced a weak link by switching to a 3/8" drive. I'm glad I waited a week and a half to not be upset over the whole thing so I could go in there and ask them nicely to fix what turned out to be only a slightly overtorqued set of wheel bolts.
Also today, I took the busted socket adapter back to Sears and got it replaced for free. Much love for the Craftsman lifetime warranty.
So what did I learn?
1. Giant pipes rule.
2. Giant pipes don't play nice with 3/8" drive sockets.
3. It makes no sense that my 1/2" drive sockets are 12 point, and the smaller drives are 6 point.
4. The next time I go to a tire shop I should explicitly ask them to torque the bolts to spec.
August 27, 2008 12:39 PM | GTI
Comments
That looks to be some kind of defect in the forging on that adapter. I've put some decent torque into 3/8 adapters (with and without pipes) without breakage. If you were using an impact wrench, I could see it, but even with a pipe it should've held. The ratchet mechanism in the wrench part will give up long before the adapter.
Craftsman does indeed rule for lifetime exchange rights, though!
Posted by: Mike at August 27, 2008 04:46 PM
broken tools rule! and even when you just want a new one... you can mangle your craftsman tool and they will replace it. :D Sears rules! at least for tools.
Posted by: douglet at August 28, 2008 12:53 AM
Looking at that picture....
Wow.
Remind me to never get into a fight with you. :)
Posted by: gs at August 28, 2008 05:51 AM