Check Rear Axle Nut Torque
Mike RoenDescription
Checking rear axle nut torque is vitally important for obvious reasons. You never want to run the risk of having an axle loosen while riding.
The stock exhaust will be an obstruction when trying to access the rear axle nut with a torque wrench and socket. The best way to get around this is by removing the rear muffler and then use a ratcheting tie down strap to compress the motorcycle’s rear suspension. This will pull the frame and exhaust bracket down & out of your way. Do whatever is necessary so that you can access the axle nut with a torque wrench and the large 36mm socket.
To check the nut torque, use a 36 millimeter socket and set the torque wrench to 95 to 105 foot pounds. You do not need to remove the axle retaining clip. If you do not have access to the correct torque wrench, you should at least take the time to make sure that the axle nut is not loose. Check this component at every service interval.
All right. If you're going down the list Harley wants you to check the rear axle, nut torque spec. We're going to do it while we got the muffler off. You know, you had the caliper up, do the brake pads. Now you've got a lot of access to get to this nut. Now, if have owned Harleys before especially baggers 36 millimeter socket, pretty big a lot of people, you know they got the thin spanner wrench that can sneak in here. Problem with this. Is you, you don't know what you're torquing it to. So what we're going to do here is we're going to compress the suspension again. Cause this bracket is just not allowing us to get in there. I don't want to take the whole exhaust system off to get to it. So we're going to just kind of compress it again. Plenty room. Now you don't have to take the circlip off. Check the actual torque, my three eights torque wrench that exceeds the parameters on this. This thing only goes up to 75 foot pounds. So you got to get old, big Betty here. And you know, if you're gonna spend the money you're going to work on your motorcycle. You're probably gonna want to get the half inch drive torque wrench, 95, go 105 foot pounds. What Harley sayin So that's torque to spec. I mean, if you bought the motorcycle used you don't know who has been putting tires on you don't know who's been working on this motorcycle. It's probably a good idea to check that pretty straightforward. You can kind of take the tide on off here. Pretty simple. Okay, let's move on down the list.
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