• Introduction
• Baseline Service
• Tool Kit
• Workshop Guides
  • Wheel Bearing Tightening Procedure
  • Common Torque Settings

Wheel Bearing Tightening Procedure

The following is intented to be a rough guide for tightening up the tapered wheel bearings commonly found on 70, 80 and 100 series (fronts only) Land Cruisers but in reality can be applied to most 4x4s - they key thing is to make sure the bearings are bedded in properly.

This should be carried out with the brake pads out of the calliper.

1. When you first put the hub on the stub axle, make sure that the seal on the stub axle and the inner hub seal have a thin coating of grease on them, but make sure the stub axle and inner races of the bearings are free of grease as well as the thrust washer and hub nuts when you put them on - it's very tricky to do but worth persevering with.  Once you have hub loosely on the stub axle and put on the spacer and inner hub nut, rotate the hub slowly as you tighten up the nut - this will prevent damage to the seals.
2. Torque the inner nut to 43ft-lbs.  This setting doesn't have to be that specific - I generally aim for around 45-55ft-lbs.
3. Turn the disk/hub at least five times left and right, perhaps do a few full rotations to bed the bearing in with the new grease.  This is made easier by slotting a stubby screwdriver or punch into the vents on the outer edge of the disk and using it as a handle.
4. Repeat the 2 and 3 above multiple times until there is no movement on the inner nut when re-torquing (the torque wrench should just click with no movement).  If you have fitted new bearings you will probably find that the inner nut will turn quite a bit when you first start torquing it.
5. ** You may encounter some stiffness when rotating the disk which generally isn't too much of a problem, however if you encounter some notchyness it may be indicative of dirt on the bearings or problems with the seals so worth pulling the hub off and checking everything. **
6. Loosen the inner nut until it can be turned by hand, making sure that you do not rotate or move the hub.
7. Torque the inner nut to 3ft-lbs.  This is very difficult to measure on the average torque wrench - I tend to just grab the hub socket with both hands and do it hand tight - yes it will be slightly over the 3ft-lbs, but it won't be too tight to cause problems). 
   ** If you are using wheel spacers, heavy wheels and tyres or rims with a big offset there is a lot more load on the bearings and I find that you need to tighten up the inner nut to around 10-20ft-lbs in order to compensate.**
8. Check that the hub turns smoothly and that the bearings have no play.
9. Measure the pre-load on the hub by getting a length of string (about 50-75cm long) with two loops at each end, loop one end onto one of the wheel studs on the hub, then wrap the string around the studs and attach the other end to the a set of fishing scales capable of going up to 15lbs.  Then pull on the scales to rotate the hub and check the measurement on the scales - this should be around 6-12lbs.  If it isn't within range, repeat all the procedures above.  (I tend to ignore this step and rely on experience - with different greases and different ambient temperatures the pre-load can vary greatly)
10. Install the lock washer and outer lock nut, torquing it to 47ft-lbs.
11. Check that the hub turns smoothly and that the bearings have no play.
12. Measure the preload again.
13. Once you are happy, bend two of the tabs of the star washer over the inner nut and the other two over the outer lock nut.
14. Job done.