well the back wheel never fell off I marked the nut with a bit of paint before I went out so I could see if it had moved at all all was good
In over 50 years of taking wheels out and putting them back in, I have never once resorted to a torque wrench. I just use either the tool kit supplied spanner and extension handle or the normal ratchet handle in a 1/2" drive socket set and do the nut up "pretty tight". Mind you, I've never had a single sided swing arm except for an R100GS which had four bolts! Something I might add is that a puncture out somewhere might require wheel removal. So being able to undo the nut is a good thing.I think we've all come across wheel nuts that are "phuq me", spanner bending tight.
That's a good point regarding the rear wheel spanner in the tool kit which should, in theory, be capable of undoing a correctly torqued wheel nut but that will obviously depend on the individual. In the event of a puncture out on the road, I'd opt for recovery if a tubeless repair kit wouldn't fix it or it was a tube type. Taking wheels out, roadside, especially without a centre stand is way too much of a faff IMO. I've ridden the dirt bike 15m home with a flat tyre on two separate occasions but that's with bead clamps fitted. I've always torqued up bike axle nuts but only recently started using a torque wrench on the SUV after shearing of a couple of studs. On investigation, the correct torque was "only" 100Nm which didn't feel that much compared to the "Feckin tight" spec I'd been using which must've been well over that.
Must say that I still use the old "one Grunt or two" method on wheel nuts even on the cars. Interestingly back in the early 80's a friend who had come out of his Ford Dealers appenticship as a mechanic went to work at a small local garage that had a vintage Rolls Royce as a ire/wedding car we are talking Siver Ghost type so 1920's/30's vintage and it required a replacment head gasket and Mick got to do it. So they got in touch with Rolls Royce for the specs and torques the reply was eye opening to say the least they got a detailed reply listing bolt sizes and positions but no torque specs instead it said with an average strength mechanic and a 6"/8"/10"/12" tommy bar so they also used the "One gtunt or two" method and this was Raolls Royce so if it's good enough for them!!!! Plezier
I never have an issue tightening up those nuts, the rear wheel retaining nut on my sons Panigale 1299s is 230 nm, and again it is never an issue torquing it up, undoing it does take a bit of muscle, a good torque wrench is essential.
And ft/lb is 3/4 of the Nm. So 100Nm isn't much. As an asside, I watch the WRC rallies and the Toyota team issue wheel nut spanner with the arm/handle length gauged to the driver's weight. So, when they change a wheel the driver stands on the handle and it does up the nut/bolt to exactly the correct torque.
Things have moved on a tad from the 1930's! For removing the axle nuts I use my Milwaukee 18v impact driver with well over 1100Nm of torque available. Definitely NOT for tightening though! I have a 3/4 drive torque wrench for anything over 150Nm but there's nothing on any of the bikes I own that need it.
no 3/4" drive but have a 1/2" drive and just bought a 3/8" drive torque wrench and an angle guage as need them to do the head gasket on the MGF head bolts are stretch olts and start at 19nm then tighten 180 degrees followed by a second 180 degrees.We also have a 1/2" drive electric impact hammer gun. Plezier
The "angle" method is fairly common with head bolts. It's the method stipulated by the manufacturer when I changed the BEB's in the SUV when tightening the new bolts.
That is what my mate now uses to tighten his back up with a touch of experience Those Milwaukee 18v are great guns, aren't they? We tested it against my 1990 vintage Chicago Pneumatic which has been, and still is, a great impact gun. No comparison really, the Milwaukee beats it comfortably.
