dana 44 steering knuckle drag torque?

[nsdq3]

Installed 79 F-150 knuckles on my krawlers edge d44/9 inch hybrid front axle. Torqued the bottom to 80lbs
Torqued the adjuster to 40lbs
Torqued the top to 100lbs

there is maybe to 3 to 4 lbs of resistance while moving the knuckles left and right. Both are the same. Shouldn't I be more in the area of 10-20 lbs on a fish scale?

The adjuster nut went about 1/4" below the surface on both sides. All components are new.

 

[Master Chief]

Pretty sure the factory manual says the resistance has to be less than 26lbs. Have not seen anything about a minimum.

 

[DirtDonk]

Agree. I thought I remembered seeing a minimum spec when I first got into working on these, but have never seen one in print that I can quote. Like Master Chief said, the wording is "not to exceed 26lbs" or something like that.

It does seem logical that you would not want it too loose, but don't know where you would find such a spec.

Did you happen to try more or less torque on the lower nut?
If greasable, did you already fill the joints with grease?
And when you made it to 40lbs on the sleeve, was it sticking out the bottom of the yoke ear? If so, how much?
I've run into that too many times recently, and don't like that I can't even reach 40lbs on most installations. So I've taken to stopping at 25 or 30 lbs, or whatever it's at when the sleeve is no more than 2 or 3 threads (about 1/8" maybe?) below the lower edge of the yoke.
So far that's worked out ok and all the ones I've seen have had a pull torque of at least 10lbs.

Good luck.

Paul

 

[nsdq3]

thanks for the replies, I appreciate the input. Like a dummy I didn't even look to see how far I was protruding on the bottom. Guess I will be pulling some stuff back apart. Thanks again

 

[DirtDonk]

You should be able to see the protrusion with just a quick glance even while it's all together.
It'll be (or should be) pretty obvious there above the ball joint.

Paul