Need Rear Axle Nut Torque Specification Options

[Langing]

To celebrate Betsy's 20th birthday (300,000 miles) I put all new brake components all round and wanted to install new wheel bearings in the rear while I was at it, but didn't want to pay a dealer $436 plus tax (each side) for new hub & bearing assemblies (Toyota part 42410-20150). Decided to separate the hub/axle from the bearing assembly and add back Timken TM512137 bearings that cost $63.79 each at Rock Auto.

After cleaning up the first original hub assembly, separating the bearing, and removing the remaining inside race from the axle, I used a large diameter socket to hammer on the new Timken bearing till it seated against the end of the hub/axle. Then I went to add back the M20 - 1.5 axle nut, the same one I had removed. Problem: When it was tightened, the "staked on" metal which had been removed when I removed the nut in the first place was still missing just above the channel, meaning there was no metal to hammer into the channel, so by removing this nut I disabled it from being reused. It is a one use item; a new one must be used when putting the assembly back together.

This axle nut is a "staked on" flared nut (meaning its form includes a -- built-in -- washer-like bottom part just beneath the flats of a 27 mm hex nut), and it has a thin walled 'lip" rising about 5 mm above the flats, and the entire inside of this nut is threaded. The lip seems to function basically to permit the nut to be "staked on" (i.e., forced (hammered) into a channel that exists near the end of the axle).

While searching all possible local sources, and just before giving up, I stumbled across an ingenious axle nut design at CarQuest, and I bought two, along with two large washers. This neat nut is made by Dorman (615-089 Nut; M20-1.5X29 mm hex spindle nut). Instead of a thin-walled lip, it has a thick-walled lip that extends about 8 mm above the flats. It also has threads throughout the inside region.

The ingenious design of this nut is simply this: Although the nut is perfectly round for 4/5ths of its length (height), the very top of the lip of the nut has been crunched (squeezed) slightly out of round by some machine force placed across its diameter, causing its shape, when looking straight down upon it, to be oblong rather than circular. Given its heavy walled lip (about twice the thickness of the original nut), when you go to screw this nut onto the axle, this pinched top part will elastically expand (under intense forces) to form itself around the spindle following the threads. Just at the place of deformation this nut will strongly pinch into the axle, without damaging the axle. It will act the same as a "staked on" nut without being "staked" on. That is to say, it will not vibrate free.

Bottom line: saved over $724 on Dealer cost in replacing the two rear wheel bearings.

Since the torque on an axle nut is especially important to the lifetime of a wheel bearing, all I still need is to know is the exact torque specification of the rear axle nut for 'Betsy' my 1994 Toyota Celica ST Coupe. Since the rear hub & bearing is sold as a complete assembly, Toyota felt it unnecessary for them to include this specification in my shop manual -- The Green Book.

In my searching, I did turn up a drawing that looked very similar to that of this assembly, and there was a torque specification of 90 foot pounds, but I was unable to convincingly associate that drawing with my Celica. Many thanks to anyone who can provide this precise specification.