Neil,
I always do it like this. Starting with vehicle properly lifted off the
ground, blocked up safely etc.... so I can spin the wheel freely by hand,
tire on.

I tighten it down till i just start to feel resistance in rotation of the
wheel by hand.  I then back off to the point where it doesn't give me
resistance.
In addition to the above step I push in and pull out on the wheel to check
for any play.  Ideally you want no push pull play and the wheel to spin
freely by hand, i.e. not coming to a quick stop once you cease pushing it
with your hand.

When putting on new bearings I've always over torqued them a bit to seat
them, then backed off following the above procedure.  Finding that point
with no added resistance caused by over torquing and no push pull play.

This has always worked well for me.  Don't forget to get plenty of grease
mushed into the new bearings.

-Ry
http://www.google.com/profiles/rylincoln

On Wed, Jan 19, 2011 at 9:06 AM, neil n <musomuso@gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi all.
>
> Short story: I likely torqued the nuts on front bearings too much.
> Grease on outer bearing rollers was brown (originally pink), evidence
> of **light** scoring on the spindle and bearing (hub?) where it meets
> spindle. I'm replacing both outer bearings. Low miles on parts, inners
> appear ok.
>
> A couple questions:
>
> I read a comment in archives (speculation?) that the nut is somewhat
> self locking.
>
> True?    (I know it needs to be peened to lock it in place)  New nuts
> feel like they are cross threading but likely are not.
>
> What is the most fool proof method for acheiving the correct torque on
> nut after preload?
>
> When I had front end apart and spindles et al were on the bench, I pre
> loaded bearings. Likely too much and the wrong procedure it seems.
>
> Neil.
>
> --
> Neil Nicholson '81 VanaJetta 2.0 "Jaco"
>
> http://tubaneil.googlepages.com/
>
>
> http://groups.google.com/group/vanagons-with-vw-inline-4-cylinder-gas-engines
>