Rich,
You are right, it would be wrong to leave the hubs torqued to 14 lbs.
According to the official Rootes Manual, first tighten hub nut to torque
reading of 15-20 lb-ft while spinning the wheel, then back off one or one and
one-half flats, spin wheel again, and then check end float. End float spec
is 0.002-0.007". With a minimum adjustment of 30 degrees on the hub nut, I
guess you should be able to get within these specs. I used to back the nut
off until I just got a perceptible looseness with the wheel mounted; grabbing
the top and bottom and pushing back and forth. With this procedure, after a
few miles (or hundred miles), the wheel would invariably have loosened up
somewhat. More recently I have tightened the nut just enough to remove the
play. Although being a little bit nervous at first, I've found after some
30,000 miles or so that the wheel bearings are doing just fine. My procedure
may actually be equivalent to the one you describe. Probably the 450#
springs, heavy duty shocks, low profile tires set at 36 psi, and driving down
rough roads at 120+ mph is a lot harder on the poor wheel bearings than the
extra notch I tighten the nut.
Bob
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