Should be tightened to 180nm which is pretty tight by hand. I bought a torque wrench for wheels and brake calipers and it’s some force to hit the 180.
Hand tightening generally gives pretty varying results, which are even worse if copperslip or grease are used on the bolts. Another possibility is expansion/contraction of the spacer (aluminium I assume) causing the bolts to loosen. Did you put copperslip between the spacer and hub and/or wheel? If so that may have caused the bolts to loosen as the copperslip settles (even by a tiny fraction).
Correct. I just fitted some replacement bolts and with this thread (pun unintended!) in mind I did a little experimenting. Done by feel alone I was always low, even when I gave it some welly (not full stand on the lever welly of course!). Also trying to judge the force by how tight they were when I undid them didn’t work. I then used a torque wrench and did them at different settings from 140 to 180nm (32-41kg force) and it was nigh on impossible to tell the difference in feel with any accuracy whatsoever. What I can say is the 41kg I needed to apply with my 45cm torque wrench to get 180nm is a considerable force. Way more than the normal 90-120nm most vehicles use. From this fiddling I would suggest it would be really easy to end up with inconsistent and low torqued bolts doing it by feel alone. More so if not done very regularly and the norm is not 180nm so one is trying to just add an extra tweak. That, combined with any tiny issues with the spacer, may have led to your loose bolts.
thanks. Looks great. Off to look at spacers now…
