rear axle torque

should the rear wheel spin as freely after it is torqued as when only hand tight? Bearings look good and all spacers are
in proper order.I have a different amount of resistance when I torque it down. The axle has been centered on the drum.
Any answers would help.

My proceedure for tightening the rear wheel starting with both dummy axle nut and axle loose:
1. spin the rear wheel forward and step on the rear brake pedal to center the brake shoes. While holding pressure on the pedal tighten the dummy axle nut
2. tighten the axle last after the brake drum dummy axle nut is already tight.

If you tighten the axle before tightening the dummy axle nut it tends to pull the dummy axle against the bearing circlip and can move the entire brake drum to the right side of the bike. This will cause binding.

When all is tight, the wheel should spin freely. If not....try again.

Yes, dummy axle first (drive side), then main axle (TC side).

If after those procedures, it still does'nt turn freely, it could be friction from the speedo drive. I had to put a thin shim (washer) inside the speedo drive. Problem solved.

Yep, one of the main causing of tightening resulting in binding movement of the rear wheel is either a missing
top hat spacer inside the speedo drive or very rarely the swing arm ears themselves are out of parallel which
could require taking the swing arm off and bending to true, yes rare but I have encountered this.

When I removed my speedo drive completely some 25 years ago I had to find and install another washer between
the inside of the right swing arm and the big spacer to make up for the space of the speedo being taken off.

Thanks Illf8ed, and the others. I always wondered why my rear wheel would have a slight bind when I tightened it up. I've been doing it backwards.

Boy, I love this forum.

One other thing I've noticed that tend to drag once axle nipped up is if the drive cushions are too proud of the hub holes or uneven sticking out enough the hub is put in a cockeyed bind on the bearings. Another drag is if the thin spacer/washer left out that keep brake shoes off drum cover, but that makes noise once nipped up past finger tight. I now think the mis matchings and spacer bindings on dumy ass-le sets it up for faster failure. Few put a safety set up on RH axle like they do the brake lever spring - which I've maybe read one story of cable breaking but so so many on you know what. Alternative is get in some practice on very low aired rear tire ahead of time. They are like radioactive substance with half life of 40 yr.

BTW be rather pensive on last nip up of axle as that just adds more strain on stress riser axle and there ain't much forcing it out of slot, so good enough not to loosen is enough.