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Electric Impact Wrench worth it?

S

Sniper82

Lifer
Had a Water Pump go out on a 95 Toyota Camry and while I was at it I changed the timing belt. This was my first time doing such a job aside from a fuel pump here and a tuneup there. Just couldn't see giving $400+(some garages was quoting up to $700) to put $60 worth of parts on. Went by the repair manual though.

Anyway Only trouble I had aside of keeping it in time while trying to put the belt on and such I had alot of trouble getting the crankshaft pulley off. I don't have access to a compressor/impact wrench. So I was looking into getting a electric one. However I don't want to buy one if its not got the guts to remove such a bolt.

My question is are the electrics worth it? If so what should I look for when shopping for one?

Thx
 
The electric ones work great for certain things, like getting tires off and such, but are large and cumbersome so getting to the crank bolt with one may prove impossible.
 
Some people loosen the crank pulley nut by bracing a breaker bar on it and blipping the starter.
 
I've always taken crank pulleys off with a swinghandle and a snipe. I can't get an impact in there on my cars.
I don't think the relatively beefy pneumatic one I have would have enough oompfh anyway.

I actually don't use an impact all that often, in the scheme of things; Chances are you'll be fine without one for most jobs.

Unless things have changed recently, the electrics suck ass.
 
T2urtle said:
i have an impact and dont use it as much as i should.
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Me, neither. They are nice but not really necessary in almost all cases. In a few they really are a nice thing to have. Like in his case with the crank pulley IF he could get one in there it would be money. But they are large. Unless you have a good foot of clearance it will be hard to get in there with the socket. You can get lower power impact wrenches with an elbow, I think.

I wouldn't bother with electric because for under $100 you can get a decent compressor and another $80 (?) from harbor freight get an impact wrench. Although I don't use my impact wrench as much as I should I DO use my compressor more than I thought I would. They are nice to have around and down the road you can use it for a nail gun, filling tires, filling your kid's pool, getting 120 PSI of air blown, etc.
 
I had a decent compressor and air tools and never really used them. I don't see a need in doing one off jobs. Hand tools give a lot more feedback and with various breaker bars and pipes you should be able to get anything automotive apart.

Most peoples problems are based on not being able to jack the car up high enough to get leverage.
 
T2urtle said:
i have an impact and dont use it as much as i should.
Click to expand...

Actually you shouldn't use one often. They are great for taking big things apart but should never be used to put things back together. They have a tendency to over torque and the little bit of time saved is not worth it. I use one to disassemble engines, rear ends, and suspension at times but that is about it.
 
They are great for doing struts if you're careful because the amount of twisting required to compress a spring with hand tools simply sucks sweaty ones.
 
Definitely great for taking stuff like crank bolts or struts apart. I have a Rockwell 1/2 drive electric that can put out about 150LB/Ft of torque .. It is old, bought it in the late 1970's ... still works like new
 
Ronstang said:
Actually you shouldn't use one often. They are great for taking big things apart but should never be used to put things back together. They have a tendency to over torque and the little bit of time saved is not worth it. I use one to disassemble engines, rear ends, and suspension at times but that is about it.
Click to expand...

Ditto,

Lawn mower blades, rims, etc. Mine has 3 settings on it, and I know that the first setting is right at about 100 ft lbs if I dont sit there and let it hammer.
 
I love my electric impact... It's much nicer to just have the same power on tap no matter what without having to run the compressor etc.

I have air tools as well, but for the most part I prefer to just use the electric if it's not a mammoth job.
 
OP, you can get an electric impact on that crankbolt. If you don't have air then they are the deal for many jobs. I use my neighbor's all the time when I'm using his lift.
 
whats minimal compressor one would need just to break bolts loose? I have no problem taking stuff off the manual way I just want to have something on hand to break stubborn bolts loose when I don't have the leverage to do so with a breaker bar/pipe combo.

I'll probably give a electric a shot though.
 
I have a 13 gallon compressor and it struggles to keep pressure when I'm using impact regularly.

I would go for a 20+ if you have the space honestly.
 
I have a DeWalt electric impact that works fine for everything I've thrown at it so far.

I attempted to use a Makita electric impact on the crank pulley of my old Honda and the sucker wouldn't budge an inch. Then again, it is spec'd for something like 250 ft-lbs.

In closing, its worth the money for most tasks.
 
If you go with Air Tools, what is really important is the CFM rating on the compressor. The more power you need for the job (torque) the higher CFM the tool needs to achieve that amount of torque. Most air tools run at 90 or so PSI
 
so I need to look at a high cfm no matter the size of the tank/motor? Don't have room for anything big otherwise I wouldn't be asking these questions 🙂. If it won't fit in the trunk of a small car I probably can't get it right now.
 
Sniper82 said:
so I need to look at a high cfm no matter the size of the tank/motor? Don't have room for anything big otherwise I wouldn't be asking these questions 🙂. If it won't fit in the trunk of a small car I probably can't get it right now.
Click to expand...

You need volume as well (tank size) because although your 3 gallon pancake compressor can push over 90PSI, doesn't mean it can do it for more than 3 seconds straight. Some air tools really use a lot of air.
 
if you don't mind the compressor pump running a lot you can be fine with a tiny tank. As long as it has enough PSI to actually get that air to the impact wrench for several seconds it will be enough to break some bolts.

Two factors are size of tank and the speed at which the pump can fill that tank. Some compressors have very powerful pumps, they can put out a lot of CFM (air) even though their tanks are small (and in some cases you get a huge tank and pump!). Generally a cheaper compressor will not have a pump able to keep up with your air tool, so the pump spends a while filling the tank first, since a tank can empty fast enough to keep up with anything you're going to put it on. There's no reason to get a compressor that can keep up with your air tool 1:1; it's not like you need to undo 100 bolts in a row. My 20 gallon one from harbor freight will let me undo 10 lugs before it kicks in, but with it kicking in it can almost keep up with the impact wrench taking air out, so I could probably get a few dozen lugs before I started noticing a loss of power.
 
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