Your methodology and calculations are correct, but the need for that
level of precision just ain't there.  The need is to correctly load the
wheel bearings in their tapering races, and 350 ft/lb is just the
minimum.  The fact that VW used a castellated nut and then speced it to
be cranked further after the basic torque is met should tell you that
knife edges and exact horizontal (rather than 15 degrees or so off)
isn't required.  The reason I'm careful to keep my similar rig close to
horizontal (besides staying in the correct torque ballpark) is so the
cheater won't slip off the breaker bar and dump me.

Ed

David Beierl wrote:

> At 10:17 AM 5/20/2002, Ben McCafferty wrote:
>
>> Hmmmm...how would you do brake work without taking it off?  Is there
>> another
>> way to get inside the drum that I'm missing here?
>
>
> Sure, just take the drum off the hub.
>
>
>> If you think in standard terms, this is pretty easy.  I'm 180 pounds, so
>> with a 2-foot cheater bar, and me at the end of it, I generate 360
>> ft. lbs.
>
>
> Only if you've got really skinny feet. <g>  When I built a combination
> remove/reinstall wrench starting with one of the Bus Depot flat-plate
> wrenches, I notched it (and marked it) at various lengths to achieve
> correct torque by people of different weights, and built a stirrup with a
> knife-edge to go into the notches so that by standing in the stirrup your
> weight is applied at the correct point.
>
> If someone builds something like this, remember when calibrating to
> account
> for the weight and center of mass of the wrench (mine weighs 26 lb -- the
> piece of plate I had lying around was about half an inch thick and four
> inches wide, nice and stiff!), and also remember that it's only accurate
> when it's horizontal.
>
> david
>
> --
> David Beierl - Providence, RI
>  http://pws.prserv.net/synergy/Vanagon/
> '84 Westy "Dutiful Passage"
> '85 GL "Poor Relation"
>