47 replies to this topic

[slindborg]

Until you undo something with it

[JG]

Mine is accurate to ~3% across the whole range

At time of testing.

exactly that, cheap ones go out of range so quickly, even if you don't undo with them.

[siztenboots]

its quite easy to check, place the end in a vice and attach weights, then measure the distance , force x distance = nm

[KurtVerbose]

Jeez, I was just looking up the wheel nut torque setting thinking someone would've posted the question and someone would've posted the answer. 3 pages of debate about 90nm! Having said that, it was quite interesting. Ok, mine are going ungreased. I have a cheap torque wrench so I'm adding 10% (rounded up to 100nm). Also, I found one of them loose. I didn't put it on myself but for good measure I'm adding 10% more for 110nm.

[Nev]

It's important not to over tighten wheel nuts, as they are designed to stretch. If they are too tight in the first place they can not do this when required. If you over tighten them even once by a large % they will lose this stretch permanently. Those of you who regularily have to overtighten your bolts to get them to stay tight should throw them in the bin and invest in a new set IMO, you will likely find the new ones don't need over-tightening.

Secondly, you need to see their strength in relation to other running gear components. On the VX220/S2 Elise things like the 2 hub carrier bolts and lower ball joint that take the upwards impact of going over pothole for instance are way weaker. Also there are only 3 bolts holding the actual hub to the hub carrier (in a tighter radius and hence weaker for taking lateral twisting moments). In relation to those two components, I am convinced that the 5 big wheel bolts spread over a wide radius are stronger by a considerable margin.

As a future precaution, I'd instruct any wheel/tyre garages you use to always hand tighten your wheel nuts with a (credible) torque wrench, as some will just use an impact wrench upto some ungodly torque.

I have new wheel nuts and wheels on Nipper at the moment, and 90 NM is quite sufficient and I never find them becoming loose.

Edited by Nev, 28 October 2012 - 11:42 AM.

[Hark]

I've done mine by hand since I made this thread a while back. My issue is that I've had bolts corrode in the hub before, so fitted a tiny amount of copperslip on the threads. As the threads aren't dry I don't think 90nm would necessarily be sufficent. Not willing to test the theory on track either.

[KurtVerbose]

It's important not to over tighten wheel nuts, as they are designed to stretch. If they are too tight in the first place they can not do this when required. If you over tighten them even once by a large % they will lose this stretch permanently.

I was riding my BMW motorcycle home when there was a sllight wobble/vibration. I thought it was a puncture. As I was very close to home I went home. On examining the rear wheel there was some play. The wheel is bolted to a single sided swing arm by five bolts, which were loose.

I actually put the wheel on, and had torqued it up to the correct nm with my cheap torque wrench. The only two explanations are that my torque wrench is inaccurate or the bolts had previously been over torqued, which is I think what happened.

Those of you who regularily have to overtighten your bolts to get them to stay tight should throw them in the bin

Which is exactly what I'll do - thanks for the tip.

[davep24]

http://www.vx220.org...__fromsearch__1 Best not to over tighten, it says 90Nm in the book for a reason