Frank,
I would tighten the nut enough to cause a little preload on the bearings.
Something around 10-20 inch pounds of rolling torque. This is usually
checked with a beam type or dial type torque wrench. The preload will
eliminate any wheel wobble, allowing for precise alignment settings. Any
play will cause increased bearing and seal wear. Too much preload will not
leave enough "room" for the lubricant to work.
How is the nut retained? Is there a lock tab or a nylon nut? If neither
than I would definitely either stake or locktite the nut to prevent it from
backing off. The preload spec is just a guess and really depends on
bearing size and loading. Of course one should rotate the assembly and
check for the correct preload after the initial setting, to ensure the
bearing needles have centered themselves.
Anyone else have any thoughts?
Tom Quaranto
1972. S/R 6 #18
Black Hawk Colorado
On Saturday, July 23, 2016, Frank L. Slejko <fslejko@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Everyone,
I’m working on the most recent screw-up done on the “race-ready” Bobsy I
bought some 14 years ago. Now it’s the rear wheel axles. Hopefully not
much left since I started from the front. I need to know what the proper
bolt torque specs are on the inner and outer rear axle nuts. The axle
appears to have been a mixed marriage of metric and ASE. The outer nut is
22mm and the inner is 18 mm. The outer nut appears to just attach the hub
and the rotor to the shaft and according to the torque tables should be
around 300 ft-lbs! Maybe it was not torqued sufficiently because the key
failed and allowed the hub to rotate on the shaft. Plus, the key slot on
the shaft only captured half the length of the slot on the hub. However the
inner nut preloads the bearings. Any thoughts on the torque? The inner
diameters of the inner and outer bearings are somewhat different than what
was published on this forum last year, if that makes any difference.
Should I tighten it to just allow a 0.004” end play?
Thanks for your help.
Frank Slejko
