Ford 9" set-up

I'm about to put my first set of gears in a ford 9" and had a quick question.

When moving my ring gear left and right with the adjuster nuts during set-up, how tight do the main cap bolts need to be? Are they just snug or do they need to be almost fully torqued down? Any opinions are greatly appreciated!

Thanks,
Jon

Snugged or 25 lbs or so. Almost fully torqued and ya couldn't move them.

They should be torqued down on final readings. They may be snug up untill your close to the spec you want then torque down take a reading and loosen to adjust. Some cases the nuts will turn with a torqued down cap. With the preload that should be on the side bearings tends to flex the case a bit and with a snug cap the readings will change when you torque em down. Be sure not to cross thread the adjuster nuts its easy to do.

It depends on if I'm just doing the initial gear setup (playing with depth shims/back lash settings) or I'm happy with the pattern and am doing the final setup.

If it's just the initial gear setup I wiggle the caps/adjusters while snugging down the bolts by hand. Then with the adjusters spinning as freely as possible I crank down on the cap bolts a bunch by hand a decent amount (wild guess on torque number).

If it's the final setup I wiggle the caps/adjusters while snugging down the bolts by hand. Then with the adjusters spinning as freely as possible I torque the cap bolts to the desired number.