etd66ss
Senior Member
Been working on a Michigan Transaxle steer axle for my Pettibone Extendo 88 (https://imgur.com/a/cN2PcQo). I should be re-assembling the axle soon, and looking for opinions of spindle bearing nut installation. The service manual calls for the use of a special tool (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Gh0Rlvxrhwfkye7xBK6IHC8x_QUv6PYC/view?usp=sharing) which I do not have.
The bearing nut is supposed to be torqued to 600-700 ft-lbs. I removed the bearing nut via a steel drift pin that was softer than the bearing nut material. Hard to tell, but it didn't seem like it had that much torque applied.
If any mechanic out there has experience with this sort of assembly, what would you do? Make a tool so the nut can be torqued, or just try to guesstimate the torque via a hammer and drift pin upon re-assembly? Based on the radius of the bearing nut, I calculate the striking force needed on the drift pin to reach 700 ft-lbs torque is 3500 lbs... Don't think I can achieve that with a 6lb hammer. This tells me that nut did not have 700 ft-lbs on it. There was no play in the spindle bearings before disassembly.
The bearing nut is supposed to be torqued to 600-700 ft-lbs. I removed the bearing nut via a steel drift pin that was softer than the bearing nut material. Hard to tell, but it didn't seem like it had that much torque applied.
If any mechanic out there has experience with this sort of assembly, what would you do? Make a tool so the nut can be torqued, or just try to guesstimate the torque via a hammer and drift pin upon re-assembly? Based on the radius of the bearing nut, I calculate the striking force needed on the drift pin to reach 700 ft-lbs torque is 3500 lbs... Don't think I can achieve that with a 6lb hammer. This tells me that nut did not have 700 ft-lbs on it. There was no play in the spindle bearings before disassembly.