Tightening Ubolts

Read somewhere on TW that the ubolts were torqued incorrectly from the factory and are supposed to be torqued to 73 ft-lb.

Pulled out my torque wrench and set it to 73 ft-lb to check and the bolts just kept spinning and spinning. I stopped cause I thought I was going to snap those bolts.

Sound odd? Should I keep wrenching or should I just stop?

 

Was the head spinning along with the nut? If it wasn't, you likely stripped one of them and you need to replace all of them you torqued on.

 

U-bolts don't have heads... just 2 ... tails?

 

You're not going to stretch or break OEM U-bolts at 75 ft*lbs... continue on. The only key is to tighten them slowly and evenly in a criss cross pattern.

 

Got it. At first when I started tightening I told myself they definitely didn’t feel 73 ft-lbs. As I continued to wrench on did notice it get tighter and tighter but was afraid I’d break something.

 

I'm thinking he's really talking about the U joint to transfer case and diff bolts as Toyota didn't use U bolts for the U joints themselves. Or, is he talking about the leaf spring U bolts?

 

I interpreted the OP as leaf spring U-bolts...

 

I should’ve been more clear that I am talking about leaf spring ubolts.

 

Be sure to tighten the 4 nuts evenly. e.g. all of them to 30 ft-lb, then 50, then 74.

Make sure your torque wrench works correctly. Some have a lot of internal friction and don't click if you crank on it too slowly. Had this problem with a Neiko and snapped a wheel stud before I realized what was happening.

 

Here is more discussion and post #26 show torque specs from the service manual.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/check-your-u-bolts.544596/page-2

 

The general consensus is that 37 ft*lbs is too light and is a typo.

For reference, I have the aftermarket durobump flip kit, and the torque spec is 95 ft*lbs.