Technical Using a Rattle Gun (Impact Wrench) on...

Crank damper bolt? I've done it lots of times, but maybe not a great idea?

Anywhere else you would or wouldn't use one?

 

I don't use one to fit up anything with taper fitted parts.

 

Uh..whats a 'rattle gun'?

 

If you have an automatic trans and need to tighten the balancer bolt, it can be tough to hold the engine from rotating to get 65 or 70 ft.lbs. on it. But if an impact is the only way to do it.......
I use an impact for disassembly a lot. I can't think of a thing I use them for assembly on. You never know how much you got on it. I have 3 different impacts, air and battery.

 

Sorry, Impact Wrench.

 

Ok gotcha.

 

I am not usually in that much of a hurry putting stuff back together. However if I was, I would use a torque stick on the gun. Common practice in a lot of settings. Having a stick for all of the situations could get costly.

 

I done use it to install the damper, I've tried in the past and stripped the threads lol. But like you said, I probably use it too much, flywheels, suspension stuff, e.t.c

 

Rattle gun...... I was thinking it was a cool new painting technique cross between a paint gun and rattle can.

 

I was thinking about the same thing....

 

And here I was thinking wrench it on and paint it afterwards.
But, I’d be concerned about stripping the threads in the crank, but maybe if you’ve verified different setting v air pressure with your impact, probably be okay

 

Muffler clamps.
Run each nut in some, bang with hammer, repeat. Seats 'em well.

 

Sorry guys, I edited the title. Too many years in the tire shop I guess.

I need to, specifically, torque my crank damper bolt. As JAW mentioned, sometimes is difficult to hold the crank and get the proper torque. A quick blast with the impact wrench usually does the trick, I just get a nagging feeling bad things are happening inside the pan.

 

I never use the things except to remove something rusty or stuck, it hasn't been out of the bottom of my tool box for years. #1. I hate the noise, #2. I'm never in that big of a hurry. I never thought to use one on the damper bolt, I usually put a clamp on the flexplate/flywheel or have somebody hold it with the flywheel turner.

 

I've got my CP in the drawer but not enough air to run it with the little compressor. I've also got a 110 electric one that I use to take stuff apart all the time and depending on what I working on assemble some things. It's pretty easy to dial the setting down pretty low on it so it will just run the bolts or nuts down and not actually tighten them much so they can be torqued by hand.

 

3 problems with impact guns , high speed galling threads , cross threading , over-tightening.

 

I've used mine for both, but I only use full power when disassembling. My gun can be turned down to where I can easily stop it by hand. Mine is pneumatic by the way. The pros use cordless drills and adjust the clutch low for the same effect.

If you need to hold the crank pulley from turning, pick up a strap wrench.

 

I´m not a professional mechanic by any means so I have enough time to work using hand tools, an dthat´s what I´m used to. I don´t like impact wrenches with assembling an engine, I only trust my feeling of "tight enough" or a torque wrench on head, main, rod, flywheel and dampner bolts. Everything else is going back together "tight enough" .

 

I only use an the air one for undoing never for doing up. Just reminded me I have a battery operated one that I won in a raffle nearly to years ago and has not been out of the box yet.

 

In the late '70s as a college student I lived in an apartment across the alley from a Chevrolet dealership. I had a garage where I worked on my hopped up Impala, and directly across from me was the commercial service area where they maintained a fleet of Coca Cola trucks. One day one of the mechanics, Roy, came over to the fence to check out what I was up to. We became friends, he gave me my first BBC, a 396 that I put in the Impala.

Anyway Roy did the heavy mechanical repairs on those trucks. I saw him putting an engine back together one day, crank, rods, heads.. all screwed together with an impact gun, turning the air adjustment as he went. End of the day that Coke truck was back in service. It went against everything I was learning in my auto shop class but every day your could hear those rattle guns ablazing over there in that service area.

 

In my experience with harmonic balancers from 50's through 80's vehicles (probably in the hundreds)...

I used to use an impact all the time until I cracked 2 balancers on the same car. Since then, I have only used an impact on press-fit balancers. If it's a slip fit balancer it gets a torque wrench. These days, I'm not in so much of a hurry so almost everything is tightened by hand. Over the years I've also built the correct tooling to install a lot of balancers properly.

Lou Manglass

 

I use a torque wrench to install flywheel bolts. Impact guns can distort the crankshaft area a rear main seal rides on the one piece seal engines ,causing leaks. There isn't a lot of material there on some engines.

 

I use several different kinds of impacts all day long to assemble things at work, but when it comes to engine work, it’s always a torque wrench. On harmonic dampers, I have a set that I bought from Mac that installs them, after that, I torque the center bolt with a torque wrench. Someone here also mentioned flange distortion using a gun, at work, it’s shop policy to use a torque wrench installing flywheels to help prevent rear main seal leaks.

 

I find the biggest issue with using power ( air battery cord) is they are usually all set on kill and no one bothers to see what the torque setting is. I’ve used my impact to install balances amd other “ critical” parts but with the air turned down and taking my time.

what I find is most guys just jam things together,
I own the balancer installer tools and yes, while it does take a couple more minutes then just ham fisting it on, I’ve never had an issue using it.

a lot of times jobs like this will “work” but the off chance it does not it can cause all kinds of grief. For the extra few minutes I’ll do it to the best of my ability. This does not always mean following the shop manual , but take a few extra minutes and doing the job “right”

ive seen it and experienced it to many times a quick short cut to save 10-15 minutes turned out being a 1/2 a day fucking around trying to save a fuck up that could have been avoided completely.

 

Ha, reminds me of the old siphon gun and metallic paint trick. To keep the metallic in suspension, I always and a couple of 3/8" nuts in the paint cup. Shake it occasionally to stir it up. So: rattle gun

 

I have an impact that I use sometimes. Most of the time I prefer to use wrist power to assemble an engine. Part of that comes from working for a Buick dealership and a major part of my duties included fixing what the "technicians" screwed up with power tools.

I would set the balancer by hand if I could then use the impact to drive the bolt home or to break the bolt loose no problem.

 

Ever watch some of the tire changers , they must think they're on a NASCAR team , stick the nut in the socket & try to run the nuts on at Mach 1 with the impact turned up to 350 lbs ft. ! My older brother had a new set of tires put on & the "techs" managed to warp the brake rotors !

 

Hmmmmmm.Rattle gun.I was wondering what caliber.
Good luck.Have fun.Be safe.
Leo

 

Over the years in shops I've seen them used on everything, I even watched a guy that wanted to be known as Dr Diesel assemble a NTC 400 Cummins using only a air guns a torque wrench didn't make it within 25' of that truck.
All I can say is it ran...............

 

As a professional mechanic I used an impact gun all day long, many times 1" drive! But rarely if ever on an engine or transmission, it depends on the fastener I suppose. Air ratchets are better for a lot of this because they don't use an impact mechanism. I also have what we called a "butterfly" gun, 3/8" drive, Snap On, useful for a lot of fasteners.