Barrel Base Nut Tightening

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olympus

olympus

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Hi Guys
Has any one made up or modified a spanner etc. (or purchased ) a tool so a torque wrench can be used when tightening the barrel base nuts
My felling is with only a 25 & 30 lbs torque these can comfortably be tightened without the need of a torque wrench??..
 
I ground down an open-ended spanner (5/16W).
For torquing I drilled a hole 150mm (6") from nut centre.
Now all I have to do is use a spring balance and pull from the hole, at right angle to the spanner, twice the poundage.
That is - for 20ftlb I pull to 40lb, for 30ftlb pull to 60lb, etc.
Cheers
Rob
Barrel Base Nut Tightening
 
I did essentially the same thing but mounted a 5/8 bolt, double nutted through the hole so I could attach a torque wrench. As with the OP's wrench, you have to make a torque setting adjustment for adding 6" to the wrench length. When I made mine some years ago, I specifically made it to add 6" to the torque wrench I used at the time. Now I use other torque wrenches that are not the same length as the one I used then and this site has a handy app available for the iPhone/Android so you can easily come up with the torque setting regardless of the length of the extension. https://www.norbar.com/en-gb/Home/Torque-Wrench-Extension-Calculator
 
Put a nut and bolt in a vice and tighten it with a torque wrench.

Then use your favourite spanner (wrench) to ‘feel’ how much force it needs to just crack it a tad further.

Do this a few times, then try tightening it with your spanner and testing it with your torque wrench.

You’ll soon get a good ‘feel’ for it and be able to tighten plenty accurate enough without the torque wrench.
 
I use a small ballpeen hammer and a box end wrench. This is another “feel” technique, but when proper torque is reached, the hammer bounces.

Ron Wood said the main difference between a Harley and a Norton was the Harley required bigger hammers.
 
I welded a nut on the shaft of the spanner mid-way. Then, keeping the torque wrench at right angle to the spanner, no compensation factor is required. With the right spanner, both sizes of nuts on the cylinder base can be torqued with one modified spanner.

The same scheme is used for the under-head nuts, except I welded a nut into one end of a ring spanner. You could use a bolt and nut on the ring spanner in lieu of welding.

Slick
 
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robs ss said:
I ground down an open-ended spanner (5/16W).
For torquing I drilled a hole 150mm (6") from nut centre.
Now all I have to do is use a spring balance and pull from the hole, at right angle to the spanner, twice the poundage.
That is - for 20ftlb I pull to 40lb, for 30ftlb pull to 60lb, etc.
Cheers
Rob
View attachment 7348
Click to expand...

I'll bet the spring scale Rob uses is the fish scale that he weighed that fish in the thread .... https://www.accessnorton.com/NortonCommando/sometimes-the-bikes-gotta-stay-home.26467/

Slick
 
Similar to wast FastEd said, I don't use torque wrenches as much as I used to because, after a while, you can get pretty good feel for torque. The old story about torque settings is a good one:

Many years ago when it was decided that service manuals needed torque specs for the various engine fasteners, a major auto company (I always heard it was Ford) had one of their top engine guys build an engine. Instead of his normal ratchets, the engineers gave him torque wrenches and he assembled the engine as he always did - by feel. The engineers observed the readings on the wrenches as he tightened each bolt and then published those readings as the " torque specs." ;)

Apocryphal? Maybe, but there are verified accounts of how various specs/designs were established back in the day that make the above look very scientific!
 
A pal of mine who serviced jet aircraft on a carrier during Vietnam told me to torque it 'till it smoked, then peen it over.
 
texasSlick said:
I welded a nut on the shaft of the spanner mid-way. Then, keeping the torque wrench at right angle to the spanner, no compensation factor is required. With the right spanner, both sizes of nuts on the cylinder base can be torqued with one modified spanner.

The same scheme is used for the under-head nuts, except I welded a nut into one end of a ring spanner. You could use a bolt and nut on the ring spanner in lieu of welding.

Slick
Click to expand...
Agree, after getting a flea in my ear from the NOC site. I now use modified sockets, one with a hole through it for hex keys and one slotted to drop over spanners.

Dave
 
In 79 I was working with Maico and a talented motocross rider in Holland (his son is Currently world champion) I asked one of the mechanics from the factory if he knew the torque setting for the new clutch center ? He just smiled an said "if anyone is watching I check my wrist watch as I Pull on the bar";)
 
Barrel Base Nut Tightening


try this
its a short wrench to fit a 3/8" torque wrench at one end and 12 point socket at the other end. when installed on a torque wrench at right angle to the handle no conversion calculation is required. i replace the regular nuts with cnw 12pt high strength nuts. i got the adapter wrench's from mcmaster carr.

55015A22 box end tight clearnace offset socket...
 
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Tightening by feel is the method I use. Before I commence the final assembly I make sure that all fasteners and blind holes involved have clean threads, if not I chase the threads and that the fasteners can all be set to within a turn or less by hand. I slowly apply torque going around a "system", like the barrel studs/nuts 2 or 3 times to insure consistency, which is pretty much what a torque spec is set for.
 
I use a "Motion Pro Adjustable Torque Wrench Adapter " I bought off an eBay seller (there's lots listed from about $60). It's a clamp that allows the use of any spanner with a torque wrench and providing you use the spanner at 90 degrees to the torque wrench there's no change to the torque setting. Worked like a charm for me.
 
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