Remember when we used to torque bolts by feel? My old crew chief would just say 'good enough'.

Back in the early 2000s at a regional shop in Tampa, we had a lot of old timers who would just run a bolt down until it 'felt' right. I did it too, honestly. The change for me came about five years ago when I got a job at a major MRO. The first thing they handed me was a calibrated torque wrench and a manual with SPECIFIC inch-pound values for every fastener on a 737 flap track. It felt slow at first, but after seeing a stripped bolt on a wheel assembly from over-torquing, it clicked. Now I won't touch anything without the manual open and the right tool. The paperwork is a pain, but it's the right way. Anyone else have a shop that made that switch and how did you get the old guard on board?

2 comments

2 Comments

alex_nguyen4d ago

Look, all that paper and those fancy wrenches just slow the job down to a crawl. A good mechanic knows the feel of a bolt seating, and you get a rhythm going. I've seen guys with torque wrenches mess up just as bad because they didn't clean the threads first or they missed the click. It's about skill, not just following a book. All this extra stuff just costs more money and turns a quick fix into a whole day's project. Sometimes "good enough" is actually good enough, because the plane is still flying.

jennyp193d ago

Totally get it, man. We had a guy at my old place who could torque a spark plug by ear, swear to god. The new shop made us use digital torque wrenches on everything, even oil drain plugs, and it felt like such a waste of time. But then I saw a cylinder head crack because someone got overzealous with an impact gun on a stud, and that manual didn't seem so dumb anymore.