mightyb28

I am about to pickup an impact wrench, but I want to know how much torque i need to get. What have you all purchased; 250, 400, more??

What size air tank and compressor size did you get; 10 gallon, 4 gallon??

What do you all recommend?

What are you seeing as the tightest bolts and how much torque did you need to get them off??

Thanks for the help.

96GT226410

I'm a Ford technician and I have 3 impact guns. Two half inch and a 3/8 inch. My higher power half inch is a Snap On and makes 800 in reverse (I use it for big vans) and my other is an Ingersol Rand that makes 650. What do you want to use the gun for? Just lug nuts? Pressing out ball joints? Suspension? It all depends... I'd go with around 650 with 150 psi. If you have to ask,you don't need anything more.

Derf00

I have a 150 Psi 30 gallon upright from sears. What is important to look at is the CFM/min or how much air it pushes per minute. The higher the rating (tq) on the Impact gun, the higher the CFM you'll need. anything less than 20 gallon you'll probably not get the full potential out of any gun as the compressor will always be on and by itself, doesn't push a lot of CFM. T

I made that mistake the first time around.....
There are a few 20 gallons that have high CFM and should work well. I just tend to go a step over what I need instead of just enough.

I can't remember the specs of my gun off the top of my head but it works well for lugnuts and the recent replacement of my struts. By the way, strut mounting bolts are at around 200-250lbs/tq before taking into account any loc-thread, rust, and aging. The top nut where the strut meets the bearing plate needs a good amount of tq bouncing off of it to pop the nut loose. Not enough tq and you'll just spin the strut shaft.

1/2" is the way to go, DO NOT use any non-impact approved sockets or extensions, not only will they probably shatter, but you could end up with shrapnel flying everywhere. Learned that in auto shop many yeas ago.

The only thing I see on the car that would need higher than 200-250lbs of tq is the Harmonic balancer bolt.
Last thing, don't use those self coiling air lines unless you have too. A lot of those are too small of a diameter and will hinder performance. Spend the extra 50 and get a real air line and reel. 5/8" up to 25' or 1/2" up to 50' otherwise you will lose pressure and thus tq.

racer02GTstang

ive got one that does 210ft lbs and it wont break my engine mounts loose....

mightyb28

Right now suspension. I tried to pop off the A-Arm, this past weekend, with a ratchet and a breaker bar to no avail. SUSPENSION is number one. I guess a 650 w/150 psi is what you state, so that would be the best way to go?

newb2000GT

I bought a portable (8 gallon I think) compressor and the joe-blow tool set from the hardware store. I haven't come across anything I couldn't remove yet but PB Blaster is my friend, so it's hard to say what I won't be able to get. With the smallish tank the compressor does run a lot. As long as you don't get one of the even smaller pancake-style compressors you should be set for a weekend warrior.

Derf00

Are you using the right size air line, does your wrench have different settings, did you put a little bit of wd-40 or penetrating oil onthe bolts first and let them sit for a few hours?

mightyb28

So how many psi and torque to you get from the wrench?

Next question. When re mounting the screws, how much are you all torquing them down and what are you using for the job?

ccord

How much did you spend on that?