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Stem locking nut tool


Lannyl81

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Just wondering what do you use if you do not have the Honda spanner wrench for the notch stem locking nuts?

I had been using a drift and hammer, but finding I am not able to get the tapered bearings torqued down just right, as the two nuts want to turn together once they get to a certain tightness.  I have also tried large slip joint pliers, but this requires two people...which I am only one.

 

Soooo what have you guys done?

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Here's my homebrew (ok, hillbilly, redneck - whatever) solution. Both of these I had laying around from the multitude of other projects I've done.  One (left in 1st pic) is a short length of 1 1/2" inside diameter pipe, available at any home center.  The OD is about 1 7/8" - matched the diameter of the locking nut quite well.   I laid out the 4 tabs needed with a marking pen, then used a grinder to remove most of the material to the required depth for each tab and then cleaned up the corners with a file. A cutoff wheel would probably be a lot more efficient at making the tabs.   Once that was fit to the locking nut recesses, the quandry then became how to adapt it to a torque wrench.   Going through a seldom used tool box I discovered a long lost socket that's 2 3/8" (3/4" drive) that I had used to set the locking nut for the manual hubs on a 4x4 truck I once owned (long since sold).  It's big enough to fit around around the pipe. To give the socket something to grip the pipe, I put the pipe on a drill press and drilled two holes through the pipe at right angles to its length. Then I did another pair slightly offset down the length and 60 degrees offset from the first pair.  That allowed me to insert a screw through each so that the socket has 4 places to grab the pipe (2nd photo).  I already had a 3/4" to 1/2" adapter to put the 2 3/8" socket on my torque wrench.  As crude as this is, believe it or not it actually works quite well.  I got everything where I wanted it and used this to set the torque.  The screws are lightweight, but this is not a high torque application - just precision is needed.   The head bearings are still working fine after 25,xxx miles.  As I had all this laying around, cost was zero.  Just my $.02 - I'm sure someone has come up with a more elegant solution than this one. 
Cheers

 

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I’ve always used a clutch puller tool.

 

Torque = just enough that handlebars fall to either side gently under their own weight when you let go (front wheel raised free off the ground). No torque wrench required. 

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