hi there muskrat, haynes manuals used to be good many years ago, they used to contain every detail you could ever want, they had really detailed drawings and loads of photos but nowadays it looks like they just rush them out. for instance, ive looked and looked in this manual of mine and i still cant find any torque rench settings for anything, maybe ive overlooked them but ive read it twice from page to page and still havnt spotted them.
does anybody know what the torque wrench setting is for the rocker cover nuts & bolts as i thought i might as well fix the leaking rocker box gasket before i set the tappets, when i took the rocker boxe's off i found a kelloges corn flake gasket had been used so no wonder it was leaking. all the best muskrat, chicago
The manuals have not changed, you have.
Now you have accumulated enough knowledge to realize that nuts & bolts should be done up to a particular torque.
So now you have the same engineering knowledge as the average Joe had back in 1950 when we did every thing by hand.
If it really worries you then get a copy of "Modern Motorcycle Maintenance" and read the section on fasteners.
THE most important thing is that all of them are done up to the same torque, not to an exact torque number.
Unfortunately this means that all of the threads need to be cleaned and the mating surfaces need to be clean and where necessary dressed flat. This is a long slow process which is out side of the attention span of most now days so it is much easier to grab the tension wrench then blame some one else when the joint fails.
Back in 1950 you would not have found a tension wrench any where in the BSA factory save the comp shop & design department.
The bikes were assembled with hand tools, no pre-set calibrated assembly tools that are used now days and "torques" were determined by the elbow of the assembler.
BSA's were so over engineered it is not funny which is why so many are still on the road now days so for just about every fastener has a wide range of torques that will work. Modern motorcycles are designed to close tolerances and components are designed close to the actual material strengths because materials are far more consistent and made to closer tolerances that would have been financially viable back in 1950.