Ugh, think I overtightened my rear wheel.
I was doing my 4000 mile maintenance tonight, and discovered that I needed to tighten my chain. Keep in mind this is my first bike, and I'm doing the maintenance all myself.
I go to loosen the rear wheel, and that sucker is tight! It also happens that the only wrenches I have that fit the bolts on the rear wheel are in the tool kit, so I have about a 4" handle to work with.
So, after much tapping on the wrench handle with a hammer, I work it loose and adjust my chain.
Then, I go to tighten it down. Knowing how tight that sucker was when I was taking it off, I just put my weight on the wrench and torqued it down, overshooting the cotter pin hole by about 1mm.
So, I try to back it off, and that thing is not moving.
I did manage to wedge the cotter pin back in there, but it's tight.
Tomorrow, I'm going to buy the sockets to fit those things, so I have a longer handle to work with.
If I can't get it off with two long ratchets (one on each side), I'm going to have to look someone up with an impact wrench.
How tough is that axle & bolt assembly? I'm concerned about stripping the threads. I assume the axle is a much harder metal and the bolt threads would give out before the axle threads, correct?