How critical is it to have a properly torqued BT pulley nut (AC drive belt) on a 2000 OBW? The manual says 16.6ft lb but since I don't have a torque wrench that goes that low I did it by feel.

How critical is it to have a properly torqued BT pulley nut (AC drive belt) on a 2000 OBW?

Not as critical as head bolts .

 

The manual says 16.6ft lb but since I don't have a torque wrench that goes that low I did it by feel.

I'd look at it this way:

 

If you significantly overtightened it, the damage is already done.

 

If you undertightened it, it might eventually loosen and you can make it a bit tighter next time.

 

Either way, I'd leave it alone; if you have much experience tightening hardware, you probably came "close enough". Just keep tabs on it for a while, and check if you hear any new strange noises. You should probably eventually get a torque wrench with sufficient range if you're going to do your own servicing.

go by belt tension. 1/4" of play is perfect. this is the only good way to tighten a belt.

 

nipper

go by belt tension. 1/4" of play is perfect. this is the only good way to tighten a belt.

Nipper, I could be mistaken, but I think the question was about retightening the hardware after making an adjustment, not tensioning the belt.

Yes that it what I meant. My torque wrench's lowest setting is 20 ft lb, but the torque requirement is 16.6. I'm not as concerned about stripping the nut and bolt. It was more about putting to much tension on the inards(sic) of the pulley(bearing?) itself. I've wrenched around on a lot of bicycles in my day, and I know how easy it is to strip an allen bolt. I went by feel, but 16.6 is not a lot to me. At the same time I forgot that I could use my Park torque wrench for my bike as it will get that low, but hind site as they say is 20/20. As for the belt tension I went by the recommendations here. Thanx for the replies.

ah ok. The lock bolt, 20ft lbs on the torque wrench is fine, also using your built in torque wrench works well too.

 

nipper

Yes that it what I meant. My torque wrench's lowest setting is 20 ft lb, but the torque requirement is 16.6. [...]

If the decimal place (.6) is what made you think things were very critical, you can probably relax. I suspect that what seems to be precision in the torque spec (by giving the decimal) is probably just a result of converting an average for the torque that was originally in metric units such as N-m (Newton-meters) to English units and then not rounding sufficiently.

 

Anyone here have a torque wrench that will accurately read 16.6 ft-lbs (and use it on their car)?