Originally Posted by 6PakBee
Originally Posted by Sniper
Anyone that thinks they can tell how tight something is torqued "by hand" is fooling themselves.



I'm not so sure that applies to all people. When I was going to college I worked part time at the local Chrysler dealer. One thing I did was new car pre-delivery preparation (dealer prep). One of the items on the checklist was to make sure the front wheel bearings were adjusted properly, So I was working on a new car and had the torque wrench out adjusting the front wheel bearings as per the FSM procedure. The senior mechanic walked over and asked me what I was doing. Told him, he laughed that you could do that by hand, didn't need a torque wrench. This is 1974 and I'm young, dumb, and headstrong so I proceed to tell him it can't be done. Now this is a guy that has worked on Mopars since 1947 and has done it all. So it ended up in a challenge. I'd do it by the book and he'd do it his way and we'd compare. So I set one side and make a small dimple on the nut so you could tell position. Loosened it up and he had a go at it (I covered the dimple with a bit of grease) and......he ended up in EXACTLY the same spot. I never questioned him again and over the next year I learned a lot from that old fart. Passed away about 20 years go. Great loss of talent. Sometime I'll tell the story about replacing the casting plug in the end of a 383 head...with the engine in the car....on the end that faces the firewall...without removing the head.


Maybe you need to go back and reread how to set front wheel bearing preload. Having just converted my 51 from the original style setup to the later style, such as used in 74, there is no torque on the bearings when you are done.