I torque all the critical fasteners on my bike so I do not overtighten them. If you think about it the torque spec for the lug nuts on 4Runner is 84 ft lbs which is more than the bike. I have put them on with a breaker bar before and been at 75 lbs before I hit them with a TW. But I torque them because then the face of the rim is even all the way around with the face of the flange and you get better/straighter tracking due to less runout. So torquing fasteners sometimes has a lot of effects on systems than just keeping the fastener tight. The lug torque on my Yukon Denali was 140ft lbs

 

larry- his bike is running good, havent been able to ride it much only got about 400 miles on it. only problem is there is an old CEL code i cant get rid of...

 

best part is I've been a dealership tech for 18yrs...so there's thousands upon thousands of em out there. I'm confident that I know what the fvck I'm doing, not ignorant or arrogant. : )

 

A true professional, with the years of experience you claim, could probably get many of these fasteners pretty close w/o a torque wrench, just from having done it so often...perhaps (even if those thousands were not Harley's or motorcycles at all). But why would he? To save the time it takes to set the torque wrench? Because you don't have a manual so you can't look up the torque? Com' on.

The axle nut is a critical fastener, one of the most critical. The periodic service recommended by Moco is to check torque on all critical fasteners. Most forum members who do some of their own maintenance probably know this. But I have seen so many threads posted here on fasteners that have been broken, rounded-over, stripped, or otherwise so fubar'd that a professional had to be hired to fix it.

Two sticks and some bailing wire, indeed. Reliable torque wrenches, suitable for an axle nut, can be purchased for as little as $15. So it seems irresponsible, to me, to hear this kind of advice from a supposed professional.

 

For all you Rocket scientist out there... go to your local MoCo dealership, grab a cup of jo, and hang out in tne service department. I'll bet you wont see a torque wrench one unless you go to the engine room.

 

55 to 60 lbs is about half the strength I use when arm wrestling. Isn't that about right?

 

your probably right and I wouldn't be surprised to find out that a number of our members probably spoke poorly about the state of their bikes after getting them back from these same service departments. I trust the dealerships I have been associated with and know all the service personnel, but comments like these are why I am happy that I do all my own servicing. And my life means more to me then someone's idea of a short cut.

Maybe I have too much pride in my work... I am sure no one would want me to wing it when they show up in my ER

 

This is starting to sound like rocket surgery.

 

If you've done it a "thousand" times and started with a torque wrench in the beginning, you'll probably get awfully close to the right torque just from experience with a crescent wrench. The guys in the Service Dept are a good example.

If only wrenching on your own bike once in a while, a torque wrench really isn't too much extra effort.

 

Well put. It's the lack of quality maintanance that is coming out of the shops that many on this forum have bitched about. Whats the big deal about using a cresent wrench on an exle nut removal that it needed a thread?