98 ranger spindles questions

[Lil-Pony]

Recently put some lift spindles on my ranger and im starting to question on how tight the big bolt that holds the bearings in should be. When i disassembled it was a little tighter than hand tight.

 

[ab_slack]

I can't speak to 98 specifically, but the bolt that goes against the bearing shouldn't be very tight.

Having just pulled apart the spindle on 87 (I expect quite different) the lock nut closest to the bearing is torqued 35 ft-lb just to seat the bearing. It is then backed off a quarter turn (after rotating the bearing while torqued, it is a bit stiff like that), then re-torqued to 16 in-lb (not ft-lb). At 16 in-lb it is pretty much hand tight. Bearing runs free at that point. There is a locking mechanism for that nut so it can't move even tho it is loose enough that it could be taken off by hand.

So I am guessing that is why it seems like it isn't on tight enough to you.

 

[ab_slack]

For what it is work, on my spindle after the locking key that keeps that nut from turning there is another nut and that one is torqued to 150 ft-lb. But I have seen it on a non 4WD spindle where there is just the one nut which is only torqued lightly (within what one could do by hand) that takes a cotter pin and that's it.

The point is putting the torque on the bearing itself causes problems, that is why it isn't torqued hard and other means are used to keep the nut from turning.

 

[Lil-Pony]

Great to hear. There is some type of cotter pin nut system that slides over the nut to prevent loosening. I just wanted to make sure as long as the tire don't wobble when in the air I'm good


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