Impact driver ?

[Agothaclypse]

Recently got meself a compressor (Nice) mainly for air blower & spraypainting, but also got some air tools, one of which is an impact wrench. What is the collective wisdom on using impact wrench for loosening tightening various nuts, bolts & screws on the GS.
BTW I have correct spec impact socketry.

Regards & thanks for any replies.

 

[Steptoe]

Very very few nuts and bolts on a BMW need an impact wrench.
The one that needs an impact most frequently is the bevel input shaft nut and collar. And that only needs to come undone if the seal has blown.

 

[Timpo]

I would not recommend the use of an impact wrench on a motorcycle. And in fact, they should only be used on larger vehicles by a competant person and only on certain fastener applications.
Most of the tightening torques required for fasteners on a motorcycle are far less than that given by an impact wrench.
If you want to try and save some time, then by all means 'crack' the fasteners loose with a hand tool and then use the IW to run the fastener off. But be careful doing the opposite as the terminating shock load of the IW will be enough to shear weaker fasteners.
Get yourself a decent torque wrench whilst you've got our wallet out. Teng do some nicely priced units, ideal for the DIY motorcycle repairers.
Oh, and if you ignor this, get yourself a wide selection of stud extractors (Presto straight flutes) and the full metric range of Heli-coils.

Best of luck.

Timpo.

 

[PIGGLET]

Don't use it for buzzing your car wheel nuts on either.
You might end up stuck at the side of the road swearing at your wimpy wheel key if you get a puncture.

 

[MattW]

Oh, and if you ignor this, get yourself a wide selection of stud extractors (Presto straight flutes) and the full metric range of Heli-coils.
Timpo.

And a spark erosion machine for when you snap the stud extractors off in the stud you're trying to remove

 

[Timpo]

And a spark erosion machine for when you snap the stud extractors off in the stud you're trying to remove

Matt, I don't know what your talking about...........








Timpo.

 

[MattW]

Matt, I don't know what your talking about...........:



Timpo.

In my ham fisted youth, I snapped an extractor off in the cam carrier of an old honda - turned the job into a complete strip down and trip to local engineering company (who used said spark eroder to dig out the stud extractor remnants). I threw my extractors in the bin after that

 

[Shep]

Air spanners are available for general use, they are low/adjustable torque and great for speeding things up a bit. You can use normal sockets with them I had a 3/8" drive one that was fantastic i even used it for tapping holes down to M3, that is untill somebody removed the oiler in the air line without telling everybody else in the workshop, it didn't last long unlubricated

Impact drivers have their use but only in specific circumstances.

Shep

 

[Voyager]

What is the collective wisdom on using impact wrench for loosening tightening various nuts, bolts & screws on the GS.

The only time I have used mine on a bike was when re-fitting fork legs to stanchions on my R80RT.

The damper rod kept turning as I tried to tighten the socket-head set screw that goes in from the bottom of the fork leg.

The 'impact' element allows the setscrew to tighten before the damper rod has a chance to turn.

I didn't use the IW to tighten the screw - so ran it at low pressure until it gripped - then used a torque wrench.

I have used the same principle on McPherson Strut top-mount damper nuts on cars.


Bob.

 

[jimcg]

IW Use

Used one for taking the flywheel bolts out when changing the rear crankshaft seals and it was soo much easier than trying to lock the flywheel and back them off using a hand tool.

Jimg

 

[Agothaclypse]

Thanks for all replies,

You have affirmed what I thought, IW was free so no worries bout not putting it to use on the GS.

Regards
Paul