Hi,

I am familiarizing myself with torque wrenches. I have become aware of a vast range of drivers available, with special purposes such as pre-load checks on pinions, etc. There are dial type, click type, and beam type. There are many ranges to keep in mind as well. Very confusing all of a sudden.

If I were to pick one really accurate 3/8" drive torque wrench with a good brand name for use on fasteners on the K-bike which needed only low torque settings, what would be the optimum range? 0-17 Nm (0-150 in-lb) or 0-68 Nm (0-600 in-lb) or 25-135 Nm (20-100 ft-lb)? I have 3/8" click type and 1/2" click type wrenches today but they are only good enough, I feel. I use the 1/2" for the big fasteners without hesitation but I'm skeptical of the 3/8" wrench and am looking at replacing it.

I have 4 torque wrenches a 3/8, 1/2 and 3/4 drive in Nm and Ft/lb as well as a in/lb with 1/4 drive all are Warren and Brown brand and are over 35 years old and in perfect working order but I dont use them very often. Usually on head studs and the like because after 50 + years of working with all things mechanical, to use an old fitters term I just pull them up till my elbow clicks, I just have a very good feel for what is right and trust that it is right.
There are a lot of very good quality tools and 10 times as much junk
Most of my hand tools are Beta which is Italian but Snapon or Starlwilli are also very good quality.
You will get a far more accurate reading going to in/lb but most torques are quoted in ft/lb or Nm. The only time I use my in/lb wrench is for doing automatic transmissions.

Thanks for that help Rick. Unfortunately I don't own a "Click-elbow" like you. I had in mind a Snap-on wrench which read in in. lb. Luckily, I waited on purchasing that wrench as I considered my situation a bit more. Well, today I found a super deal on a Stahlwille 3/8" Drive Digital Torque Wrench (Model 730D/10). Now, I'll be able to set and read directly in Nm. Perfect. This baby has a 10-100Nm range which covers the torque requirements for 90% of the bolts on the K75. One happy camper here.

Sweet....But OMG list price is more than I paid for my bike

I know; the price for these tools is through the roof. Found this wrench on a US Government surplus site for less than the price I would have paid for a Craftsman or Mastercraft click-type torque wrench.

I've had the same dial-type torque wrench for years, it goes up to 150in-lb. It's about a yard long and open on the handle end. The handle-end can also provide extra leverage to socket wrenches, hex wrenches and the like to help break a bolt loose.

Dredging up this old thread to update it.

Well, I did end up buying the Stahwille wrench from the US Government site but OMG what a disaster that was!!  It was defective when I received it, and I had a hell of a time trying to return it and get my money back.  They are thieves and I will never deal with them again.

I continued the search for a replacement torque wrench.  I concentrated on digital electronic ones so that I could set and read directly in Nm.  To assist me, I took the Excel spreadsheet of K75/K100 torque values and sorted them to see the range.  This focused my efforts to locate a wrench in the range 7-140 Nm.  I finally located one -- Eastwood digital torque wrench #13630.  It has all the features I need and has a range of 10-137 Nm.  This covers 90% of all my torquing requirements in one tool.