Hey Scotty,
I overhauled my '79 Catalina's brakes this afternoon and figured out during the teardown that the rotor change involved removing the wheel bearings along with the rotor from behind an axle nut. I reassembled everything after that curveball. Is there a specific torque that the axle nut needs to be tightened to? I tightened the castle nut so the codder pin goes through it, and the wheel doesn't wobble on the axle when you yank on it, but I'm not sure if it needs a specific tightness or not.
12 ft-lbs. Then back off until you can fit the cotter pin
That's surprisingly low! It sounds about right, though. I tried to loosened them with an adjustable wrench, expecting the torque holding it together to laugh at me, and it moved surprisingly easy.
you shouldn't crush the bearings with too much torque on these old cars
I noticed that it didn't really have a point where it would stop, like most nuts and bolts do. When I felt I couldn't easily spin the hub with the lug nut studs, I backed it off a good distance. I basically tightened it to where the edges of the teeth on the castle nut are roughly in line with the cotter pin, and the wheels don't rock back and forth.