That moment I realized I was over-torquing panel lugs for years

I was on a service call in a strip mall last Tuesday, swapping out a main breaker that kept tripping. The homeowner's buddy, a guy who used to work for the utility company, watched me for a minute and asked if I always crank lugs down that tight. I said yeah, you want them snug right? He pulled out his torque wrench and showed me the spec in the manual, I was probably 30 percent over. I never even thought about it, just went by feel. Has anyone else had a come-to-Jesus moment with a torque spec?

3 comments

3 Comments

angela7288d ago

My buddy at the auto shop told me the exact same thing about spark plugs a few years ago. I was cranking them down all the way and he showed me how that actually damages the threads over time. It's funny how we just assume tighter is always better when in most things there's a sweet spot that you gotta stick to.

zarag178d ago

Read a mechanics forum where a guy tested torque on spark plugs and found the factory spec was way lower than what most people guess. @angela728 is right that going too tight strips the aluminum threads in modern heads especially. Got a torque wrench myself after that and haven't had a leak or broken plug since.

alext528d ago

Yeah for real. Took me way too long to learn that lesson too.