Rough & Not Quite Ready Yet

[original condor]

Howdy folks, I'm slowly smoothing out my 70 K10 longbed. I bought it with 350 with 12,000 mi, 650cfm Edelbrock carb, & Performer intake, headers, granny 4 spd, 4" blocks in back on a truck 12", & 44 in front, fairly straight body with rusted out rockers & some floor boards, but zero rust at driprail/gutter or lower back corners. Has bad paint, mediocre interior, but runs like a bat out of hell due to a big lumpy cam, way too much for the comp. ratio you can get fuel to run. I would have never used this cam but that's how it came. I'll put an RV cam in it when I pull the engine. Paid $2500 so I'm happy so far!
I'm concentrating on finding, exposing, phosphotising, then priming with rust reformer, then recoating all with paint, or rubberized, paintable under coating. Also scraping grease, & other stuff that requires very little money, just lots of time & elbowgrease.
Today I discovered marks on my rear diff that showed the housing had rotated slightly from the wrap up under acceleration, so I broke out the breaker bar and 7/8 deep socket, & proceeded to bear down on the u-bolts
but before I took them to the max I can do with my feet against the tire, pulling with both hands, my back & my legs, I figgered I'd better ask whether
it's possible to overtighten those u-bolts? Any advise would be appreciated

[hugger6933]

Welcome to the site ,you will find a lot of help in general here. I think it depends on the breaker bar and how big you are. I don't know the torque setting or how much it should be but putting all your weight into it may be a little much. if the rear has indeed moved you need to inspect it for other problem like a sheared tie bolt if it has leaves or missing clamps or something along that nature if it has coils. Jim

[EARNHARDT#3]

The pin probably broke. The ubolts keep it all sandwiched together but the pin/bolt keeps it from rotating.

[original condor]

The pin does look deformed. It may be just an optical illusion, but the top of the mounting pad welded onto the diff. case does not look flat in how it meets up with the 4" block, which does look flat. I dont see any distortion in the sides of the pad though. I can't afford to tear apart and fix at this time, so I need to tighten them as tight as is wise, and then make sure I don't romp on it till i got it right!.......How tight can I go? I got the standard 18" long 1/2" breaker bar, & I'm a scrawny 60 year old 160 pounder. No torque wrench available, so trying to find out if I can hurt anything by getting too tight? I would love the spec. also, so when I get a clicker, I can get it right.
....................Thankyou in advance..........Steve Rieck