I'm fiddling around with my nuts at the moment (ooer!)


Hub nuts, that is...


When I tighten up the front hub nuts on Cortina uprights, I know that they need a certain amount of slack to allow for expansion when the bearings warm up.

I read instructions somewhere that say 'tighten the nuts to ??? ft/lbs and then turn back ??? flats of the nut'.

At the moment I've done mine so that I can feel a very slight amount of rattle when waggling the wheels.

Does this sound about right?

cheers,
David

I've always tightened the nut so it just "nips" and then backed it off slightly.

I tighten the bearing till the wheel when spun by hand obviously starts to slow down from the drag of the bearing and then back it off 1/4 of a turn. (I have the wheel and tyre on for this btw)

With hub taper roller bearings it is normal to slightly overtighten the bearing to ensure the tracks and rollers are fully settled in the housings.
So you you have a torque tightness to ensure this and then back a specific angle (or no of flats) to set the correct clearance.
One of the problems with taper rollers is that the installer sets the clearance. You should not be able to feel play once adjusted correctly.
I strongly recommend ther SKF website for information on all aspects of bearing installation and use. Especially useful for details of shaft fits.

The Haynes manual quotes:

Tighten to 27 ft/lbs while rotating the hub, then back off 90 degrees.

David