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Good way to get a bolt to 550 ft-lbs of torque?

W

Will Herring

Well-known Member
I see the hammer strap for the hitch on a John Deere 8100 I was helping work on for a friend requires the two metric bolts to be tightened to 550 ft-lbs... Which is pretty insane, I thought (I've never seen anything that was supposed to be over 220 myself). I had a three foot wrench, but can't imagine I got higher than 140 or so (180 if it was a good day; I had my feet against the back tire and the was pulling up for maximum potential). How much do you think I can get on it with a six foot cheater bar?

How are ordinary farmers expected to put that much torque on something; it's unreal, isn't it? :?: :shock:
 
100 pounds of force on a five and one half foot cheater bar should give you 550 foot pounds. That is a heap of torque!
 
are you friends with anyone at a truck shop?maybe you could rent one for an hour at a rental shop if you want it to be at 550 for sure,but a 6 foot cheater bar will get it done i'm sure.I borrowed one once that was 4 feet long and went to over 600ft pounds
 
Considering that torque is measured at the bolt head, if you can provide 100 pounds of lift at the end of the six foot cheater bar, you should easily generate 550 foot-pouonds at the bolt head. Is that a really big bolt?
 
If you have a 6-ft cheater bar and are applying the force 6 ft from the center of the bolt, then you can easily get the 550 ftlbs of torque. If you were to pull with 100 lbs of force at a distance of 6 ft from the bolt, that equals 600 ftlbs of torque.
 
They're metric bolts, but the bolt head is probably... 1 and 1/4" or so. Maybe a bit bigger than that.

Still, that's an awful lot of torque...
 
My Case 930 came with a snapon box end wrench wired to it. To tighten wheel bolts they said a 4 foot pipe and a normal man on the end. 450 ft lbs if I remember. Was in the operators book.
 
It would have been easier if it was somewhere that I could have gotten on the end of the cheater bar, but having to lay with your back on the ground and put your feet against the wheels and pull just isn't the way to go. Plus the hitch is so low to the ground it's not in a convenient place to get a good bite on. Especially when you're using your three foot adjustible wrench because you don't have a metric socket set that goes up quite THAT high.
 
OK let's add a little here. You do not know how much your pulling up on that 6 foot cheater. So turn it around and hang on it. Now just hang a 100 lb tractor weight on that bar at the 5.5 foot point and you have 550 ft/lbs. Of course that means you need the weight pulling 90 degrees to the bar so I would use slightly more weight or longer bar at a higher angle.
 
right size 1" socket + T bar and six foot snipe and pull as hard as you can is close enough.
 
There is the correct way.Use a calibrated torque wrench and a heavy walled socket of proper size.The torque wrench should be at least 3/4 drive,1 inch drive would be better.People get hurt and things get broken using improper tools and long pipes for leverage.Ever seen what happens when pull handles and thin sockets break? I've even seen people use cheaters over ratchet handles.Ever seen a ratchet head explode?Hard bolts can stand a lot of torque and its needed on some things.If the manual says 550 ft.lbs.then thats what it needs to be.No less and no more.Check with a heavy equipment mechanic in the area.He should have the proper tools.
 
I understand that repair shops and factories use gear reduction ratchets for that type of work. At least that's what a friend that works in a shop told me I needed to use on the clamps on my axle dual hubs in order to get them good and tight.
 
Rent a 3 or 5 to one torque multiplier at the local rental shop and with your 1/2 torque wrench you can easily torque it to 550.
Walt
 
All bets are off now! If they are metric bolts you can't apply foot pounds to a metric bolt - it has to be Newton Meters. You may even have to hire a European to correctly apply the Newton Meters!
 
With a 6 foot cheater bar you are likely going to break your torque wrench, either the ratcheting mechanism at the head or the lock that keeps it set at the right torque spec. Don't ask me how I know :( .While the wrench may go up to 550 ft. lbs., chances are when you actually try it that high it won't be able to withstand it.
 
Can you push down at all on the bolt or only pull up?

A ft-lb is one pound of force at one foot from the pivot point. So take (550 ftlbs) / (your weight) = (# of feet). So for me I would take 550/160=3.4 ft. If I hang my weight off a 3.5' cheater bar I will acheive just over 550 ftlbs on the bolt.

Looking at it this way it doesn't sound too difficult.
 

Will ,

If you really need a big torque wrench,

I have one that will do 2000 ft lbs without

a multiplier, it's 1 1/2 square drive. 550

is not real high ,the head bolt in the old

220 cummins engines torqued at 460-480 ,

later small cam and big cam engines torqued

300-320 and the mains about the same.

george
 
I have an 8100 and it has a hammer strap. It doesn't matter what the book might or might not say it DOESN'T NEED 550 ft-lbs of torque, it just needs to stay tight. Mine was not difficult to take off the first time, it sure didn't have 550 from the factory.
 
Waukesha 7042 natural gas compression engine cylinder head bolt torque - 600 lbs/ft, 8 bolts per cylinder head, 12 cylinder heads per engine = 96 bolts!!...............done by hand, you know you've done something after you've done one of those!!
 
Your weight times the length of the cheeter bar equals the required torque. Say you are 200 and the cheeter is 2' then the torque is 400 foot/pounds
 
Seems to me as the head bolts on the Case 451 and 504 engines torque to 240 and the large bolts holding the torque tube to the engine are 270. I know I have done that with a 1/2 torque wrench without any cheater. Get a good 3/4" or 1" impact wrench and have at it. Most will go over 1000 so 550 would not be a problem.
 
Ordinairy farmers do not have a $1000,-torque wrench for the odd big bolt,and having to go out and find or rent one is most times time consuming and costly.a big bolt that requares that kind of torque can not be broken by the average person with a 6'snipe on a 1' T bar.I have done a good # of them that way.put some oil on the treads and yank it down.
 
With a 6' cheater?? About 1200 ft-lb. Easily.
I'd probably just run the thing in with a 3/4" impact gun and call it good.
Otherwise a 4' cheater should be sufficient unless you can't get much leverage on it...

Rod
 
Hello Will Herring.
You could barrow a 600# torque wrench or use a torque multiplier. YOu can use a 4 to 1 torque multiplier, at 137.5 LB on torque wrench 550 Lb at the nut.
Guido.
 
Get a 3/4" torque wrench, click type, I think they go up to 600 ft-lbs. I had to torque a nut on a wheelmotor, tightens a hub to a tapered shaft, holds the rear wheel on the lawnmower, it was all I could do to apply 300 ft-lbs, with the wheel mounted, chocked and strapped to a lift table, with the 4' handle torque wrench, and my 260 lb a$$ bouncing down on it! Luckily, the torque wrench clicked, just as the wheel started spinning!
 
The Jesus nut on a Huey ws torqued to 660 lbs.This nut was on top of the shaft that came out of the tranny and kept the main roter on;;;; usually!We had a torque wrench bout 4ft long with built in multiplyer and didnt take much to tighten.Brings back memorys,some good and some not so grand. Hoss
 
Well, I used a 2 foot adjustible wrench, and then stuck a 3 foot cheater bar on it. I'll chalk it up to being "as tight as possible". The problem is that you have to spin the wrench parallel to the ground because the bolt heads are on the bottom side of the hitch, like where you would put a clip in your hitch pin.

I'd wager it's got a good 450 to 550 ft-lbs of torque on it. I'm not sure how hard I can pull upwards while laying with my back on the ground, but I'd say it was enough...

Yeah, we've split some sockets using cheater bars before. Or just jumping on the really long ones. Usually when working on the rear wheels of our tractors. Heck, the last one that broke, we were trying to take the rim off of our old Allis Chalmers WD.

Thanks for all the responses.
 

From the Lely Service Manual for my disc mower.

The M30 nut at the end of the connecting bar should be oiled and then tightened at a torque of 515 ft/lbs.
Tightening of the M30 nut at the extremity of the connection rod can be done as follows:
Put a spanner on the M30 nut and lengthen this with a pipe, thus releasing an arm of 5 ft. Tighten nut with a force of 100-106 pounds.
 
Hello George
You remember those NH220 too.
Rear main on Cummins has been 300 FT LB torque.
Now the use the torque and turn method 150 FT LB then turn an aditional 30DEGREES. And it brings the fastener, you guessed it.....300 FT. lB.
The torque value is more constistent with the new method.
Guido.
 
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