Idler and Pittman arm replacement question.

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A friend who is a ASE mechanic(and has a stellar reputation)helped me change out my old idler and pittman arms on my 97 GMC Sierra. He did not torque any of the bolts with a torque wrench and I'm just wondering if this should have been done? He said he has changed tons of them over the years and just zips everything together with the impact wrench or snugs them up with the ratchet and never has any problems. What are your thoughts on this. Are these parts sensitive to how tight you get the nuts and bolts tightened up? Thanks!
 
You don't need a torque wrench for chassis parts no. Just get them tight.

Torque wrenches are primarily for dealing with gaskets so that you get even compression.
 
Originally Posted By: Merkava_4
You don't need a torque wrench for chassis parts no. Just get them tight.

Torque wrenches are primarily for dealing with gaskets so that you get even compression.


I agree...
 
I do torque the pitman arm nut on the steering box as its very tight and has a specific measurement (184 ft.lb) the rest no, some nuts are castellated nuts that use cotter pins on tapered shafts that you couldn't possibly use a torque wrench on anyway.
 
Appreciate it guys! So it there a way using an impact gun to get close to a certain torque setting? Say you wanted 80 ft-lbs on a 19mm lug nut. Can you use or set the gun to come some what close to that ft-lb range?
 
In fantasy land if you used the same gun, the same PSI every time, had clean fasteners every time and ran the impact say on its lowest setting for x amount of seconds then took a torque reading as a benchmark then maybe, realistically no way in Hades.
 
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