On Friday, March 10, 2017 at 4:44:46 PM UTC-8, John B. wrote:
On Fri, 10 Mar 2017 12:08:50 -0800, Joerg
wrote:

On 2017-03-07 16:27, John B. wrote:
On Tue, 07 Mar 2017 08:21:06 -0800, Joerg
wrote:

On 2017-03-06 17:00, Emanuel Berg wrote:
Joerg wrote:


[...]



... isn't this like a poor-man's torque wrench and much more complicated
at that?


No, it is very practical. I try to be a minimalist with many things. Why
buy and store a torque wrench when it is not truly needed? Then there is
the ratchet mechanism. When it gets old how do you know it is still
accurate? The suitcase scale I can easily check.

I might comment that at one time I worked in the Edwards AFB (USAF
Test Center) shops where we had a "Torque Wrench Shop" where the guy
tested and recalibrating torque wrenches. I once asked him how many of
the torque wrenches turned in for calibration actually needed
adjustment. He said "all of them, even the new ones".


Exactly what I meant. I never really trusted those things which is why I
never bought one.

On the other hand installing and correctly tightening 56 spark plugs
in one engine is difficult to do without some sort of instrumented
device :-)
Actually what you could have done is to note how much rotation - beyond first bottoming contact - brings the plug to the desired torque - for example 1/4 turn after the crush washer is engaged, and then do that every time.