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PSA: My old foreman was right about using a torque wrench on those M12 bolts
For years, I thought it was overkill to use a torque wrench on the M12 bolts for the motor mount plates in a standard traction unit. My old foreman, Mike, would always say, 'Just snug them up good and tight, you'll feel it.' I'd just use my impact driver set to low and call it a day. Well, last month on a job in Tacoma, I had to go back to a building because a motor was making a weird hum. Turns out, three of the eight bolts had worked loose over six months, just from vibration. The whole plate had shifted maybe an eighth of an inch, enough to throw the alignment off. I went back with my click-type torque wrench set to 80 ft-lbs, like the manual actually says, and the noise was gone in ten minutes. It was a total 'I told you so' moment in my head. Has anyone else had a simple spec bite them like that?
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