Spent 6 months torquing spark plugs wrong on the 737

Was doing the top plugs on a CFM56 and a lead mechanic watched me for a second and goes "you're overtorquing those by 50 foot pounds easy." Turns out I'd been reading the torque chart wrong the whole time since I started at the hangar in Phoenix. Anyone else find out they'd been doing something basic wrong for way too long?

3 comments

3 Comments

quinnm778d ago

Did you have the old torque wrenches where the scale wore off?

paige1667d agoOG Member

Wait, was that the style with the big metal beam that flexed when you cranked it down? My buddy @quinnm77 borrowed one from his dad's garage once and the numbers on the side were totally rubbed off after like 20 years of use. He was trying to torque down his truck's lug nuts and had to guess based on feel, which is honestly terrifying when you think about it. Ended up snapping two studs because he went way too hard on them and had to drill the broken pieces out. The whole thing turned into a three day project just to replace some wheel studs on a rusty old Ford. He still has that stupid wrench in his toolbox as a reminder to not cheap out on tools.

henryt187d ago

Oh man, that brings back memories of trying to tune my old bike with a rusty crescent wrench I found in a dumpster.