Removal of rear brake drum side bearing

marshg246 said:

No, 70 ft lb is too much for a Commando, Triumph, BSA, et. Al. rear wheel in general but is way too much for a Commando and will deform the speedo drive. It is worse on a Commando because Norton and Smiths never got together and made a speedo drive that matched the spindle diameter, so Norton used a spacer to take up the gap and that gets crushed and the speedo drive deforms.

View attachment 123843

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When a torque figure was first quoted and indicted as being in the manual, I went and looked for it....but surprisingly their isn't one stated.
As I have no speedo drive fitted 70lb ft on a axle shaft of this diameter isn't unrealistic
BTW I turned up a new st/st spacer which takes into account the thickness of the removed drive

Question....On rear wheel install should the axle shaft or the sprocket securing nut be tightened first


securing nut be tightened first??

olympus said:

When a torque figure was first quoted and indicted as being in the manual, I went and looked for it....but surprisingly their isn't one stated.
As I have no speedo drive fitted 70lb ft on a axle shaft of this diameter isn't unrealistic
BTW I turned up a new st/st spacer which takes into account the thickness of the removed drive

Question....On rear wheel install should the axle shaft or the sprocket securing nut be tightened first


securing nut be tightened first??

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I don't know where the 70 ft-lb came from, but it has been discussed here before.

The 69 Workshop: Tighten
The 70-73 Workshop: Tighten Fully
The MK3 Workshop: 80 ft-lb

Old Britts: https://www.nwno.org/resources/OldBrittsWebsite/n_torq.html

AN: https://andover-norton.co.uk/files/5c8/WEBSHOP VERSION Torque settings Commando AN.pdf

Page 11 of my torque document: https://gregmarsh.com/MC/Norton/Info/NortonTorque.aspx



BTW, I've tested on a 1974 Commando and 1974 Trident and damaged the speedo drive at 70 ft-lb. I've been using a standard 3'8" drive ratchet since the 60s and have never had an issue on a Norton, Triumph, or BSA. I have not tested on a MK3, but I definitely won't be tightening to 80 ft-lb!

Triumph 63-70 T120 Workshop: Lockup the nuts (no torque given)
Triumph T150V Owners: Tighten
Triumph T160 Workshop: Says nothing about it.