Serious question, is the torque wrench check debate actually settled? My lead said one thing, my A&P school taught another

Had this come up last Tuesday on a 737 flap actuator job here in Charlotte. My lead swears you always click the torque wrench down from a higher setting to seat the mechanism, said it's how he's done it for 15 seasons with Delta. But my instructor back at AIM taught the opposite, always start low and click up so you never overshoot. I followed the lead's way on the first bolt, got an odd feel on the breakaway, and we had to pull the whole panel again to verify. Turned out the bolt was fine but the fastener was cold enough to change the reading. So which one is actually backed by the manual and which one is just habit? Has anyone else seen this split between what school says and what the floor does?

2 comments

2 Comments

kelly3851mo ago

That bit about the cold fastener changing the reading hits close to home. Buddy of mine out in Dallas, he works avionics on CRJs, told me last winter he had a whole argument with his crew chief over the same thing, right down to the manual saying one thing and the floor doing another. He went with the crew chief's method, snapped a bolt on a fuel pump cover, and they had to drill it out. Turns out the manual has a note about temperature compensation that nobody reads until something breaks, and his school never covered it either. So yeah, the split you're seeing is real, and the manual is usually right, but the floor habits die hard because they worked once in a warm hangar.

quinna891mo ago

Damn, that sucks for your buddy. Nobody wants to be the guy who snaps a bolt and has to drill it out, especially when the answer was in the book all along. Hope the crew chief learned something too.