Track Day Gear List?

Dave B

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I don't like the idea of repeatedly using a torque gun to remove and put on lug nuts. I use a breaker bar and very light drill to spin nuts off and back on, then tighten with a mild use of breaker bar and finish with a torque wrench.

I use the Pittsburgh 1.5 ton jack which is easily moved and works fine but isn't tall enough to lift the center rear jacking point high enough. Works fine at all the pinch weld jacking points.
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Sam3

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I don't like the idea of repeatedly using a torque gun to remove and put on lug nuts. I use a breaker bar and very light drill to spin nuts off and back on, then tighten with a mild use of breaker bar and finish with a torque wrench.
As long as the lug nuts are not over-torqued, it should be OK to use an impact wrench to loosen and unscrew them. The only exception is wheel locks. They can be delicate and break. So it makes sense to use a breaker bar for them. Breaker bars are mostly used to prevent damage to the ratcheting mechanism of manual socket wrenches or in cases where you have a seized nut and need a lot of torque. In wheel shops, they rarely use breaker bars.

For tightening, you should use a torque limiting extension or an impact socket with a built-in torque limiter, both of which should have a torque limit below the torque spec of the lug nut. For example, the Type R spec is 94 lb-ft. So you would use a torque extension like this snap-on unit with 80 lb-ft torque limit, or more conveniently this Sonic impact socket with 74 lb-ft limit. This way your impact wrench will stop tightening at those limits no matter how much tightening torque it has. Then you would use a torque wrench to manually continue torquing to the exact spec.

This should do it safely and save you time and effort.
 

Dave B

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As long as the lug nuts are not over-torqued, it should be OK to use an impact wrench to loosen and unscrew them. The only exception is wheel locks. They can be delicate and break. So it makes sense to use a breaker bar for them. Breaker bars are mostly used to prevent damage to the ratcheting mechanism of manual socket wrenches or in cases where you have a seized nut and need a lot of torque. In wheel shops, they rarely use breaker bars.

For tightening, you should use a torque limiting extension or an impact socket with a built-in torque limiter, both of which should have a torque limit below the torque spec of the lug nut. For example, the Type R spec is 94 lb-ft. So you would use a torque extension like this snap-on unit with 80 lb-ft torque limit, or more conveniently this Sonic impact socket with 74 lb-ft limit. This way your impact wrench will stop tightening at those limits no matter how much tightening torque it has. Then you would use a torque wrench to manually continue torquing to the exact spec.

This should do it safely and save you time and effort.
Tire shops do what is convenient and quick and indeed torque limiting sockets/extension are good to use but you still need a torque wrench to finish. Personally, I think repeated use of torque guns to loosen nuts will end up damaging the lug nut finish if not the lug nut itself due to the repeated pounding. The extra time for me to break loose the nuts with a breaker bar is small and I am never in a situation where the nuts on the car have been over torqued.
 

AlphaDigital

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I have a Ridgid impact gun with an "automatic" setting that stops impacting as soon as the gun hits resistance which is nice for putting lugs on. From there, I just tighten with a torque wrench.

I have a completely separate set of lugs (Monster) which are just cheapo steel lugs that dont require anything special to put on. I keep my Project Kics for my nicer daily wheels, but still use the auto setting on them.
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