Just discovered that the rear axle seems to be loose. What is the process for tightening the two 50mm nuts? What are the torque specs so I can judge how tight I am making them since I doubt I will be able to use a torque wrench? Do you torque the first one and then hold it in position while tightening the 2nd one?

Need help quick. Hoping to ride tomorrow if I can find a couple of large wrenches. Otherwise, I am stuck on the 400ex.

Is it just me or are quads way more work than 4 stroke motorcycles? I don't think a week has gone by that I haven't put a wrench to the Raptor. I ran the WR400 hard for six months without a single problem except bending the bars and levers before I sold it. I've owned the Raptor since February and have a repair list that rivals some of the Raptor add-on lists I've seen posted on this forum. Thank goodness I haven't experienced the blown carb seals or the 2nd gear problem.

Anyhow, thanks for any help you can provide.

 

Hi NotuRaptor,

From the Yamaha shop manual:

Before tightening the nuts, apply LocTite to the thread portion of the rear axle. (Don't use the red kind, I just had to cut the nuts off of mine because I couldn't get them off after using the red. I'll never, ever will use red again on anything that I want to take apart!)

1. Finger tighten the inside nut while checking the ring gear engagement.
2. Tighten the inside nut to 40 ft. lb.
3. Hold the inside nut and tighten the outside nut to 140 ft. lb.
4. Draw a line across the inside and outside nuts.
5. Hold the outside nut and tighten back the inside nut to 170 ft. lb.
6. Measure the distance between lines. If distance is less than 15mm (0.59 in), retighten back the inside nut.

I'm looking at the pictures and I'm still confused by stuff like "retighten back the inside nut". Anyway after cuting mine off I ordered a Rad-Lock locking nut from www.RecreationUnlimited.com. I tried to order a DuraBlue locking nut from James Lucky but was told that they don't have them yet for the Raptor. I don't know why not because it should be the same as the Banshee.

Below are the instructions that I got with my Lonestar axle.

1. When installing the axle nut for the first time make sure that you DO NOT over tighten it.
2. Tighten the axle nut a maximum of 1/8 of a turn.
3. Tighten the jam nut utilizing LockTite.

I plan to tighten the Rad-Lock nut according to the Lonestar instructions and then tighten the set screw to lock it.


Good luck,