Breaker bar

I'm gonna attempt to get my front sprocket off.

I have a nice TengTools rachet and socket set but I'm told I'll need a 'breaker bar'.

Is this like an extension for my current rachet to help increase the torque?

Or is it a completely separate rachet which I can use with my socket?

Can I get one from Halfords?

[Spiderman]

TBH i've seen peeps get an old length of scaffold tube and pop that over the hadle of the ratchet to extend it and thats their breaker bar.

I'm sure someone more knowlegable will be along in a mo.... Rictus??

It's simply a long arm that gives extra leverage and can be anything from a chrome-moly bar with a socket attachment or as Zig says a piece of scoffolding that goes over the end of your normal socket arm. I've just bought myself a shiny new one but up to now I've been using a pole that belonged to a large garden parasol .


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You will be safer using a tweaker/breaker bar attached to a "T piece" adapter socket rather than on a ratchet as the ratchet teeth could give way. Learn from my mistake and call it wisdom or learn from your own and call it experience

[Sid Squid]

It's definately not a good move to put any sort of extension over the handle of your ratchet, the ratchet has a short handle specifically as it's not intended, nor is it capable, of handling the sort of force that you could exert on it with an extension, you'll notice that breaker bars do not have ratchet heads for this exact reason.
If you need to exert on great force on a socket use a breaker bar, or if you don't have one, put an extension tube on a sliding tee bar.

[northwind]

Machine Mart do a humungous 1/2 inch socket torque wrench for £5.99, whiuch is cheaper than most breaker/wheel bars will be Comes with a step-down for 3/8 sockets, which is probably what your Teng tools jobbie will be. It's also a reasonably accurate high-value torque wrench (though it may stop being so once you've used it to muscle off a few really sticky bolts)

Halfords sell an extending wheel bar thing, but the handle's angled so it might be harder to get a clean push on. It's not cheap either IIRC.

You could just use the tube extender, but it'd be a shame to abuse a nice ratchet like that... I do it happily with my cheap Clarke ones because I really don't mind if one breaks. (I use a bent SV front suspension tube as an extender I didn't bend it either)

[johnnyrod]

Never, ever use a torque wrench for undoing stiff nuts unless you want to use it as a doorstop afterwards. A torque wrench is for limiting the torque applied to prevent overtightening. They do tend to be long but it's not to make it easier to pull on.

Use a T-handle attached to the socket (Tommy bar, whatever you want to call it) and slip a pole over the end. You'll need someone sitting with their boot on the back brake and the chain still attached. The most tricky thing is that the large turning force you get with this will make the socket try to slip off the nut (outwards).

My breaker bar (or knuckle bar) came from Halfords and they do them in various lengths

A word to the wise though. If you use them on smaller bolts (say M12) its dead easy to shear them off if seized! Be generous with the WD40

Tris

My biggest problem is that the chain snapped. That's why I'm replacing the chain and sprockets.

So no chain on there.

Is this gonna be impossible or just ****ing hard?

I'll head into Halfords tomorrow for the T-bar/Breaker bar and spray the nut with WD40 tonight. Minimum suggested length for the bar?

Dammit if the chain was still on I'd ride to a dealer to get them to loosen it for me. There's no way I'm paying to have the bike delivered to a dealers as it'll cost the same as tools once you chuck in their labour charge

Just a thought but if the chain is broken, how are you going to hold the sprocket still while you attempt to undo it?

Normally I assume that you would have stopped everything going round by putting the rear brake on.

Might prove challenging

Tris

PS longer the bar the easier it is to undo tight bolts - more leaverage