Rear wheel nuts - torque wrench or guess?

[FreshAL]

When you're tightening rear wheel bolts do you...


I'm just interested what everyone else does really.

[www.125power.com]

When i tighten a rear wheel nut, i get a the heftiest looking spanner that will fit, slide a length of stainles steel tube over it and yank it and then if you can stand on it too. Keep an eye on the spanner for it rounding off the nut, and also for it coming off the nut as you will injure your self when it pops off and you have your weight on it.

This works really really well, but if you have poor quality nuts will round them off or strip the inner threads. Kwik-fit have a hard time getting them off with their impact wenches too.
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[Suzuki]

[www.125power.com]

[Suzuki]

[zaknafien]

I've always just tightened it until I can't move it anymore.
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02 Firestorm.

[Whosthedaddy]

Bit of guess work, usually as tight as can.

Lesson was learned when I sheared off a wheel stud on a car once Theres tight and theres too tight
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Current : MSX 125 Past : CBR 900RR Monkeybike : c50 LAC : ZXR750 H2 : FZR600 : ZX7R P3 : YW100 : TRX850: Trophy 900 T309 : GSXR 600 L0: Monkeybike : XJ6S Whosthedaddy

[LustyLew]

Before I got my torque wrench, I just guessed. Usually until It was tough to tighten any more and then another 1/4 turn.

Now it's torque wrench all the way.
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Like a Yorkie - I'm not for the girls

[numark1]

T-Bar and a rubber mallet, hit it a few times until it's fairly tight, not uber tight though.

Haven't had a wheel fall of yet.

[Absolute_Kwackers]

my god im the only one who uses a torque wrench lol!

anyway cant really go wrong if i have it tightened to how the manual says!

[Barry_M2]

[fuzz]

[BlackSheep]

[fuzz]

I was told by someone in the trade that you can tighten bolts without specific torque values if there are no bearings behind them, just get them as tight as you can by hand. If they have bearings, you should apply the correct torque as to not damage them.
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Bikes: '99 NSR125R, '00 SV650S, K1 GSX-R600, '97 CB500, K3 SV1000S, '16 VFR800

[G]

Feel free to pop down and use my torque wrench to check your nuts .

[FreshAL]

I've been told it depends if they are taper bearings or not?

any mechanics what to correct that?

[G]

As mentioned, they have spacers so shouldn't be /too/ much of a problem for non taper bearings, which bikes ones usually are.

If I tightened stuff up to the point that it was as hard as I cound turn it with an extended spanenr there would be a lot of knackered threads .

[stinkwheel]

I do them up 'till they are as tight as I would reasonably expect to be able to remove again at the side of the road with the bike tool-kit. Really enough to feel it 'nip' then another 1/4 turn

If you check with a torque wrench, they don't really need to be all that tight. You certainly shouldn't be bursting a blood vessel over it or having to stand on the spanner. It is a big, fine pitch, castellated nut with an R-clip, they can't come undone.
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I did the 2010 Round Britain Rally on my 350 Bullet. 89 landmarks, 3 months, 9,500 miles.

[akaDAVE]

Usually I push it until my thumb starts to hurt, then just to be safe I put a tea-towel over the bolt and give it another good twist.
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[WildGoose]

for gods sake dont use an open ended spanner, ring spanner minimum

torque wrench

experienced spannner twiddlers will tell you all about feeling how tight a nut needs to be, but this has always felt a bit wishy washy to me

ive fucked an equal amount of fasteners both by trying to 'feel' and by using a torque wrench


remember torque wrenches are damn sensitive pieces of equipment and would wager than most people who own them dont treat them with the respect they need to hold their accuracy, most are fairly innaccurate anyway

you cant win in this respect, without a device for measuring the applied torque, such as an indicating torque wrench or a wall mounted device (such as an Acratork) that you plug your torque wrench into to measure the applied force and breaking point, but again these need to be calibrated as well, and realistically if you arent a business you arent going to call someone out to calibrate them every 6 months

there seems to be no way around it, to make it an exact science

generally.
-dont drop your torque wrench
-wind it fully off after each use but not past the end of the range, wind it to its minimum value
-dont continue turning after its passed its breaking point
-dont use it for undoing anything that is past its maximum torque value
-dont use it as a hammer

make sure youve got the torque correct, i.e. when haynes give diameter of fasteners they are usually talking about the thread diameter not the bolt head

sounds simple but thats taken my bike off the road before
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[stinkwheel]

Angular tensioning is a more accurate way of doing the job and removes the need for a torque wrench. It is how the cylinder head bolts on most cars are done these days. (ie put the nut on by hand so the nut is on the bottom thread then give it six turns clockwise, back it off four then tighten two kind of thing.)

This tightens the bolt by a fixed distance (because you already know the pitch of the thread) and means that 'sticky vs oiled threads and inaccuracies in the torque wrench don't come into play.

To be honest, I know more peole who have stripped threads because they either didn't notice the torque wrench break or because it didn't break for some reason than by overtightning by hand.

Come to think of it, the only people I have ever heard of loosing the back wheel out of their bike are 1960's Lambretta owners (Which had a badly designed wheel spindle).
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“Rule one: Always stick around for one more drink. That's when things happen. That's when you find out everything you want to know.”
I did the 2010 Round Britain Rally on my 350 Bullet. 89 landmarks, 3 months, 9,500 miles.

[True Blue]

I borrowed a torque wrench once and tightened it up. When I done this I was able to gauge how tight it should be when doing it by hand.
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[MarJay]

[The Tot]

Just did mine today. I finger tightened it as close as it goes, then torqued it up to the approximate value - it's bloody hard to read the scales once the light goes. Most bikes have cotter pins on their bolts to stop the bolt coming off the axle nut so either way, there's a sure fire warning if you haven't torqued it up properly.

Also torquing things up too tightly will reliably ensure that you get a cross threaded bolt. Doing things too tight can also limit the free play of the wheels.
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[www.125power.com]

Think i gunna buy a torque wrench then, seem to better than standing on a "breakers" bar........
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