ABSTRACT
Thischapterwillhelpyoudecidehowmuchpreloadyoushoulduseinanexistingjoint,or "whattorque?"asthequestionisusuallyworded.Toanswerthisquestionwemustbriefly reviewmanyofthetopicscoveredinthishandbook.Hopefullythissummarywillhelpyou decidewhichofthesemanyfactorswillaffectyourresults.Anditwillgiveyouareasonable way,Ithink,tomakeacceptableassemblydecisionswithouthavingallthehardandfastdata youwouldliketohave.Suchdatacostmoney-oftenalotofmoney-andarerarelyavailable tothosewhomustdealwithexistingjoints.Infact,inmanysituationsyouwon'tevenneed mostoftheproceduresdescribedinthischapter.You'llbeabletousethe"simplewaysto selectpreload"describedinSection3.Ifyou'vehadproblemswithajoint,however,orhave failureoreconomicconcerns,thenyou'llneedsomethingpracticalbutalittlemoreelaborate; you'llneedtheproceduresthatmakeupthebulkofthischapter.Forsafety-relatedjointsyou maywanttostartwiththeseproceduresbutusetheinformationinpriorchaptersand/orthe manyreferencestogowellbeyondthem.So,here'showwewouldstartoursearchfora "bettertorque"ifwehadhadproblemsorwantedtodoabetterjobwithanexistingjoint.
