Axles or Just Stubs?, for a roller - what would you do? Options

[bbrock]

I've got just a few things left to do before pulling my car off the rotisserie and making it a roller. One of them is installing and torquing the rear axle stubs so as not to wreck my new bearings. The car will be a roller with no engine or trans for the next few months. I go back and forth about which would be better - bolt the axles onto the stubs before they go in, or install stubs only for now and bolt the axles in later. It's been decades since I installed an axle with the stub in the car and don't remember how much of a PITA it is compared to the PITA of dealing with loose inner axle ends while the car is a roller without transmission installed. What's your preference?

[914werke]

No question, stubs! As stated, no need to torque them

[Superhawk996]

No question, stubs! As stated, no need to torque them

If you don’t want to risk damaging your new wheel bearings you must apply some torque the stubs.

Torque between the stub and the hub is what applies preload across the wheel bearing races. Split race double row ball bearings MUST have at least some preload on them to avoid damaging the wheel bearing. No torque will allow the bearing to “split” and you’ll end up with the balls rolling on a portion of the race that they were never intended to roll on.

If you don’t want to do full torque at least do 1/2 torque spec to just roll it around the garage.