I finished installing my new front suspension / steering components. I am ready to torque the castle nuts down on the centerlink, tie rods etc. I have the troque specs but am wondering if you tighten them more then the torque spec to get the cotter pin hole to line up or do you back off as with some wheel bearings?
Thanks!

 

Personally, I torque it to spec, and go a tad more as needed to slide the pin through.

 

NEVER back off.

The torque is usually given as a range - start at the low end and keep tightening until a hole lines up.

I've never used a torque wrench for these myself - it's not a critical value like the head bolts. In my book, it's got to be "darn tight," which falls somewhere between "tight" and "gorilla tight." A good solid "Oooomph" without any additional "Grrrrrrrrr" should do it.

- Eric

 

Cool, thanks guys, my gut said never back off......who wants slop in the steering, that what the rebuild was to get rid of!

 

The reason is that the tapers of the two mating parts are very tightly machined, and with enough torque on the nut, they will be held together with no play at all.
If you allow any play (such as by backing off or by assembling them dirty or greasy), then thousands of miles of constant impacts and vibration will slowly wallow the tapers out, creating greater play, and ultimately resulting in sudden breakage, which you don't want.

- Eric

 

MD is right on. On wheel bearings it's obviously different as you DO want a little play. But steering linkage is not quite star torque - you know, tighten it until you see stars- but something close will do.

 

I found that when I was tightening mine, the closer I got to the lower torque setting the castle nut actually came really close to lining up. Just a little bit more and budda bing! Torque was perfect and it lined up perfect. Don't forget to bend the cotter pin the right way when you put them in.