Why do I keep snapping my rocker arm studs?

[CrunkRuffRyderz]

Ok so I installed a new valve cover gasket on my 93 Accord and I go and torque the acorn nuts that hold on the valve cover to 9 ft lbs and 2 of them go smoothly and the torque wrench clicks, then on the 3rd one, before I even get any tension one of them snaps at the smaller end that shows thru the valve cover, luckily not the end that screws into the rocker arm assembly. Then I go to try another one by hand and I get the same thing! Is there something I am doing wrong, or just old rocker arm studs? The car has 226k miles so it's probable they have just gotten old but not too sure. Chilton's manual says 9 ft lbs but I saw a video on YouTube and the guy does it by hand so maybe I should do that? He mentioned tighten until snug but on the last 2 I never even felt any significant resistance and then they broke :/ please help!

[Darkcloud]

Youre over tightening them go hand tight slowly.

Ive done it my way no issues

[Raf99]

Youre over tightening them go hand tight slowly.

Ive done it my way no issues

Yep. I've always just did these by hand. Just enough to push down the rubber seal a bit.

[illinois_erik]

i saw in a manual to put soapy water on the rubber bushings then tighten it down, you dont really need a torque wrench, just tighten them by hand till theyre nice and snug and do it in a spiral pattern so its snugged equally.

[steelbluesleepR]

are the studs and nuts clean and oil-free when you try to install them? oil can make the resistive force against the torque wrench lower, causing the wrench to read lower than the actual tightness of the nut would cause.

[Fleetw00d]

are the studs and nuts clean and oil-free when you try to install them? oil can make the resistive force against the torque wrench lower, causing the wrench to read lower than the actual tightness of the nut would cause.

For a typical bolted joint, about half of the torque is taken up by friction between the nut and the flat surface, 40% by friction in the threads, and only 10% actually goes into creating the preload in the joint. With oil on any of the friction surfaces, less torque is used overcoming friction and more of it goes into preload, so even using a torque wrench, you can get much more load in the joint than intended.

Note: The 1993 OEM manual calls for 7 ft-lb for these nuts. I suggest tightening them a turn or two at a time in a criss cross pattern to pull the cover down evenly.

[youngflyndsaved]

i've had this happen to me as well.

what kind of torque wrench are you using exactly? if you're using a big ol' 2ft long ratchet with a 1/4 drive then it's probably puttin alot of force down on the bolt/stud. way more than needed. using a smaller tq wrench would help out, one that has increments of inch-lbs.

[steelbluesleepR]

For a typical bolted joint, about half of the torque is taken up by friction between the nut and the flat surface, 40% by friction in the threads, and only 10% actually goes into creating the preload in the joint. With oil on any of the friction surfaces, less torque is used overcoming friction and more of it goes into preload, so even using a torque wrench, you can get much more load in the joint than intended.

yeah, that's what I meant, I apparently couldn't form coherent sentences this morning!

[Fleetw00d]

yeah, that's what I meant, I apparently couldn't form coherent sentences this morning!

I knew that's what you meant - just tried to explain it a little better. Engineers can't leave things alone sometimes.

[EsperHamid]

Ok so I installed a new valve cover gasket on my 93 Accord and I go and torque the acorn nuts that hold on the valve cover to 9 ft lbs and 2 of them go smoothly and the torque wrench clicks, then on the 3rd one, before I even get any tension one of them snaps at the smaller end that shows thru the valve cover, luckily not the end that screws into the rocker arm assembly. Then I go to try another one by hand and I get the same thing! Is there something I am doing wrong, or just old rocker arm studs? The car has 226k miles so it's probable they have just gotten old but not too sure. Chilton's manual says 9 ft lbs but I saw a video on YouTube and the guy does it by hand so maybe I should do that? He mentioned tighten until snug but on the last 2 I never even felt any significant resistance and then they broke :/ please help!

clean the studs threads until they are shinny, check the threads, shit happens.

[sonikaccord]

I've snapped my fair share...I use a small ratchet now and just tighten a little bit.

[EsperHamid]

I've snapped my fair share...I use a small ratchet now and just tighten a little bit.

I do them by hand via a T-wrench, I can feel them better

[CrunkRuffRyderz]

Now that you all mention it, the studs were full of oil, and my torque wrench is the long one about 2 feet long. I purchased new studs and had a local Honda tech show me how tight I should make them. Everything is in working order now and I will definitely take this as a lesson for future projects and hopefully this can help someone else in need of this information