It's pretty hard to screw this up. When you have the axle nut aligned with the cotter pin holes and semi-tight, you know it's got to be tighter so you tighten it up to the next slot in the nut. That takes 1/3 of a turn on the nut and by then it's very tight, tight enough to meet (or exceed) the minimum torque in the spec range. Like I said, I never checked mine for years but when I finally did (after I found the torque spec range), I found I had been making it tight enough all along.