Torquing control arms

[Trauma PA]

I can assure you that you're not knocking a properly supported truck with a 2ft torque wrench unless you're doing it wrong. Good jackstands make a difference (e.g. pin instead of ratchet and overrated for your vehicle) and bonus points for some with axle cradles if you're supporting something round.

A 90lb one-arm press is well beyond the average person so most aren't going to be able to hit the correct torque values without the clearance.

Point made and well taken.
There are a ton of Harbor Freight customers on this forum. Last year HF issued a recall on one of their Jack stands for catastrophic failure. Just saying.
I'll keep taking my precautions and doing it the way I have been doing it. There's more than one way to skin a cat.

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[Trauma PA]

My stands are capable of 4 times the weight of the truck. I have a set of 4 of NAPA's best from 25 years ago. Yes, they are ratchet but they are built like tanks. As long as you ensure the dog is in the rack properly, it can't go anywhere. The frame of the stand is heavy gauge steel and welded properly. I've had then that long and there's still no rust to speak of - the finish is good, the welds are great and I've had straight trucks supported on them.
I had a pair of them under the rear axle of my car while I lifted the front end with a gantry crane - that meant that more than just the weight of the rear of the car was on them - the car for a while was over 30 degrees in the air. The stands have a nice curve to the top and hold an axle tube securely. The axle tubes rotated nicely in the stand cradles, never climbing out.
I use those stands when I need to put 250 pound/ft of torque on the rear axle to hub nuts as that axle can't move, it has to be on something solid. .

The stands I made sit on a steel plate, are heave gauge pipe (not water pipe) and I use a 3/4" pin through holes in the inner pipe to set the height. The outer pipe is braced to the steel plate with heavy angle iron running from the top of the outer pipe to the outer corners of the plate. Those are what my tractor sat on - I made them for that purpose. My bet is that they'd each hold up 10,000 pounds.

I am claustrophobic and have a fear of being crushed and/or suffocation. Not a lot bothers me otherwise but those two things freak me out. If I even imagined something could keep me from breathing, or might crush me, I'm outta there.

You sir have Beasts for Jack stands. My guess much better than what the average weekend wrench warrior has. I think you're good ?

 

[ShadowsPapa]

You sir have Beasts for Jack stands. My guess much better than what the average weekend wrench warrior has. I think you're good ?

I put my fears to good use.

 

[trloh]

I'm 52 not 22 so when I installed my control arms with a 250 ft. lb. torque wrench reaching 190 took my floor jack on the handle (rubber pad included) to make them click without causing me to need the chiropractor the next day. No damage done to torque wrench it is a Tekton with a metal twist handle not sure my 150 ft. lb. plastic handle Craftsman would put up with that abuse.

It actually hurts to admit I can't do that stuff well anymore.

 

[cb4017]

I'm 52 not 22 so when I installed my control arms with a 250 ft. lb. torque wrench reaching 190 took my floor jack on the handle (rubber pad included) to make them click without causing me to need the chiropractor the next day. No damage done to torque wrench it is a Tekton with a metal twist handle not sure my 150 ft. lb. plastic handle Craftsman would put up with that abuse.

It actually hurts to admit I can't do that stuff well anymore.

I tried that at first on the front. Just didn't feel right.
Putting my JT on ramps for more clearance actually worked pretty good and was not too tough.
Dang! wish I was 52 again.

 

[trloh]

I guess I 'had' to do it that way. My Mustang is on a lift next to the Jeep but it is in a state of disassembly so I worked on the ground rather that raising it up. I really should finish the Mustang and get it off the lift.

 

[bleda2002]

Since they can be done on the ground, I just used my jack to turn the wrench.

I hit them with as much ugga dugga as my impact would give them (around 150-160). Then i took my 250 ftlb torque wrench and used a quick lift floorjack and pumped it up to turn the torque wrench for me. About 5 repeats of pumping up then lowering and Ihad the 190 ft lbs no straining on my part.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

I'm 52 not 22 so when I installed my control arms with a 250 ft. lb. torque wrench reaching 190 took my floor jack on the handle (rubber pad included) to make them click without causing me to need the chiropractor the next day. No damage done to torque wrench it is a Tekton with a metal twist handle not sure my 150 ft. lb. plastic handle Craftsman would put up with that abuse.

It actually hurts to admit I can't do that stuff well anymore.

Welcome to the club. My chiropractor appreciates it when I come up with clever methods of not doing further damage to my back. He saw the xrays and his first comment - "you've done a lot of heavy lifting and heavy work in your life, haven't you". Uh, yeah, doc. Engines, heads, differentials, and while farming, hundreds of bags of seed, tossing bales up on the racks.....
Sort of funny as you sort of describe my torque wrenches and what I did last time I had to set a crush sleeve in an older differential and get pinion preload right. I used a floor jack on the wrench.

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