- finally, regardless of what you read on the internet, break away torque is NOT the same as tightening torque. You cannot test a torque wrench by undoing a torqued fitting.
That's a good point that a lot of people who ought to know don't. I remember back in the day, I was at an engine builder's shop and the guy went to retorque the head nuts of my engine. Of course, the wrench clicked immediately without doing anything. I told him the coefficient of static friction is a lot more than dynamic friction and in order to retorque a head nut, he had to loosen it first and then retighten it. He thought it made sense but I don't know if he changed his procedure or not. The difference between static and dynamic friction was of course something we learned in engineering school, but ironically, the person who taught me the application of that with regards to torquing fasteners was a racing buddy of mine who was a chemist!
