Rear Wheel Bearing

Decided it was time to clean and re-grease the rear wheel bearing which required a purchase of a 46mm 1/2" drive socket for the axle nut. Had to use my electric torque wrench to get the axle nut off (yes, I un-staked it first).
Had to tap the axle out with a rubber mallet.
Small amount of corrosion on the axle, cleaned that off with emery cloth and steel wool.
Wiped old grease out...which it seemed like there was not a lot of....brushed new grease in, rotated bearing, repeated several times.
Thin grease film on axle and seals; axle slide easily back in, put the drive flange back on, washers in correct orientation, applied oil to axle threads and used my good 'ole Craftsman torque wrench set to 141 ft-lbs, with wife hold rear brake down, VFR on center stand, attempted to torque the axle nut....nope, rear brake would not hold.
Put bike on side stand, with wife applying both front and rear brakes was able to torque to 141 ft lbs.
Re-staked nut, taped cover in place....DONE!!

Anyone want to purchase a 46mm 1/2" drive socket????.....

 

Yep she was helpful.

 

Just nitpicking a bit, but if you lubricated the threads, you should reduce the torque setting by about 15%, so the setting should have been 125 ft. lbs.

 

That is what I have been taught as well. However since the Service Manual stated to apply oil to the threads with the 141 ft lbs of torque that is what I did. I went back and forth on this, hopefully this is what those Honda engineers meant.

 

Good thinking, pretty unusual for torque settings to be for lubricated threads. But good catch.

 

Sometimes ingenuity isn't pretty, but if it works, it's beautiful.