Toe In for Kioti Front Axle Dk45/DS45

dennis52 · Aug 28, 2013

The Service Manual for my 2011 DS4510 (same front axle as current DK45s ) states that, following adjustment of the tie rod ends in order to obtain correct toe in , that I should retighten the tie rod lock nuts to 270-316 lb/ft.

Now this seems to me to be a very high torque rating for a lock nut that size. Advice would be appreciated

If the toque spec is correct , than I am not sure how to go about trying to measure it.

It seems the only tool that would be suitable for the job would be a flare nut wrench with a long lever on the end (and guess the torque)

I have two torque wrenches but they only go up to 150 lb/ft however even with a higher rated torque wrench you would not be able to fit a socket onto the nut anyway.

I am leaning towards ignoring the torque spec completely and tightening the lock nuts to about 50-70 lb/ft with a 12'' long flare nut wrench

Any thoughts

GMtb42 · Aug 28, 2013

Wow that seems excessive, must be a misprint. Maybe it is newton? But that would be 233 to 199 ft# still. On all the ones I have done in the past, cars, trucks they were 45 to 65 ft#.

dennis52 · Aug 28, 2013

Here is a copy of the spec in the manual

Lock nut........................367.5 ~ 431.2 Nm
37.5 ~ 44 kgf-m
270 ~ 316.8 lb-ft

ritcheyvs · Aug 28, 2013

It's gotta be a misprint. I just put two wrenches on the flats and give it one good grunt. There are more than a few errors in the service manual for my 451 but neither my owner's manual or service manual specify a torque specifically for this lock nut. There is some generic torque data (based on size) at the beginning of the maintenance section.

ritcheyvs · Aug 28, 2013

More: The maintenance sections in the DK451/45S OM and SM don't specify the torque. But back is section 7 (front axle) of the SM there is a spec of 123.0 ~ 144.6 ft lb for the tie rod locking nut. This still seems high to me by a factor of two. As long as it doesn't work lose, it is tight enough IMO.