How does a breaker bar work does it make it easier to turn the bolt or what? You said to the seized chevy 327 guy to stick it on the balancer bolt is there any way to know if your tring to turn it to hard?

 

ummmmm is this a rhetorical question?

 

breaker bar is similar to a ratchet...but has two advantages

1. it hasn't got the "ratchet" internals which allows it to have more strength. making it better for high torque applications, without running the risk of breaking the gears inside.

2. they tend to be longer, which allows you to apply more torque to a bolt with less effort on the handle. that is where they get the name...more torque means you can "break" bolts free easier.

 

The main thing with the breaker bar is turning it the right way. As mentioned above, it is similar in design to a ratchet, but lacks the forward/reverse selector.

 

I suspect the name "breaker bar" might come from the fact that, when you use this tool appropriately, it will either:
a) break a rusty bolt free, or
b) break the bolt itself

I have a big electric impact wrench that, along with heat and WD40, would not remove one of the bolts holding my stock PHR in place when I was swapping it out. With my breaker bar, however, I was able to twist the bolt apart, and remove the stock PHR.

Here's what one looks like, although this one has a rachet head attachment:

 

They also have torque multipliers that go up to about a 10:1 ratio, so 100 ftlbs in, 1000 ftlbs out. You probably won't see them unless you work on semis though; I've wanted to get one just to see what I could break with it , but unfortunately they're not cheap either.

You can also get ratchets with handles that are just as long as breaker bars, but most of the time you have to go with an expensive tool supplier such as snapon to get things like that. The local parts stores usually just stock junk.

I try to use an impact wherever I can, though. It tends to break bolts free more often without breaking them or rounding the head off.

 

cheap multiplier; 3ft pipe on the end of a breaker bar

 

Simple physics Torque = Force x Length the longer the bar the more torque you get for the same force.

 

Of course, if the location permits, you can jump on the breaker bar if you need to.