Excessive Torque on Rear Axle Nut!

Six months ago my honda dealer removed/replaced the rear wheel for service. Yesterday I removed the rear wheel and and put on a new tire. To 'crack' the axle nut I had to use a 25 inch (1/2 inch set) long breaker bar, put the SWing or rough concrete to prevent tire spin, set parking brake, and place a 2x4 behind the tire to keep it on one place - while I stood on the breaker bar with little hops to get the nut to crack/break. I am sure that I applied in excess of 400 ft-lbs (maybe a lot more) - which is about 10x the recommended installation torque. The nut/thread were dry -but no evidence of excessive corrosion. I believe that the honda dealer may have considerably over-tightened the rear axle nut - but maybe my removal experience is within the normal bound for a SWing. I see no evidence of thread strain on axle/nut- but not sure if I could even see the strain. Questions: How much torque does it take you to crack the rear axle nut? Do you think there is anything for which I should be concerned? Should I replace the axle nut just to be on the safe side? What would you do - if anything?

I would think just making sure the nut is "properly" torqued would be sufficient.

x

bigbird wrote:

I doubt if you applied 400 ft. lbs.

To answer all your questions...... if nothing broke, there's nothing to fix.
Life is short.
Just go ride your Swing.

I weigh close to 200 pounds. My lever arm is approximately 2 feet. I was standing on the end of the bar with both feet on the breaker bar - then grabbing the sissy bar to give me even greater leverage in pushing down. So, I am pretty sure that I was at around 400 foot pounds (i.e., 200 x 2 = 400). When you crack your rear axle bolt do you need to apply this much torque to do it? Just asking if all of you need to stand on your 2 foot long breaker bar to get your rear axle nut loose. There are likely very few of us that could apply a 100 pound force with their arms to a breaker bar - let alone the over 200 pounds force that I applied (body weight and pushing and a bit of jumping). Bigbird - your advice is valued and I thank you for it.

x

bigbird wrote:

If the axle nut is that tight I would use my pneumatic impact wrench. If you don't have air tools, then a 120V electric impact wrench is my second choice.
My last choice would be jumping on a breaker bar with extension.
400 ft lbs could easily break a tool, a part, or your ankle if you slip.

Don't have either an air or electric impact wrench - but I guess it needs to be higher up on my 'must have' tool list (and DennisB recommended that I get one!). Thanks for pointing this out as this practice could lead to a nasty accident. While I did think of this when I did it (i.e., jumping on breaker bar) - now that you mention this hazard I am not planning on doing this again.

Got rear axle nut torqued to 102 ft-lb (and thank you very much for saying 'read the service manual') and I can now say with certainty that the breaking torque was indeed on the order of 400 plus foot pounds.

Reading the manual it says the axle bolt is a U-bolt. My bolt looked pretty much like any bolt. When I think of a U-bolt I think of something that has a clip-like apparatus attached to the bolt - which mine does not. What is a U-bolt as it applies to the rear axle bolt of a SWing? Maybe I have the wrong bolt?

By the way, I installed NEW honda brake caliper bolts with their lock-tite (why take the chance). So, I do read/listen/act. Thanks.

x

Sorry - I think. My manual on page 1-14 refers to a the rear axle NUT as Note 8 - which is a U-nut according to the legend on page 1-11. So, what the heck is a U-Nut? It is the ONLY nut called out in the Torque Values Table - so what is a U-NUT?? Thanks!