The correct tooling to measure such low torque is a torque screwdriver - it has a dial on its top and not everyone has a use of it.

The other correct way is the way our member "army" showed us with a scales setup from wood, thread and some weight. - Infact some old mazda repair manuals show a similar trick too when setting wheel bearing preload.

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2012 BMW X5 (Beef + Granite suspension model)

1995 E300D - The original humming machine (consumed by Flood 2017)
2000 E320 - The evolution (consumed by flood 2017)

The FSM shows a similar tool but much smaller with predetermined weights which I presume come with the tool.

It's just a flat blade with a hole in the balance point and a set of hanging masses.

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84 300SD
85 380SE
83 528e
95 318ic

Yeah, the factory service manual shows what's essentially a torque screwdriver. The lb-in beam type torque wrench I have is suitable for the job, and is common practice. My area of concern was that the pinion bearings of the Ford truck differential had no preload (and may have been loose), and also that the pinion bearing friction in my 300SD's differential was almost not measurable due to having almost no preload like it was supposed to. I'm sure in both cases it's due to wear.

So, since the preload on my 300SD's bearings was too low, it led me to wonder what the correct preload would be since I can't use the previous setting as a reference (and I wouldn't have liked that method anyway, since there is no guarantee the setting is correct). And then the specifications in the factory service manual is with the gear set removed from the housing, not with it installed as mine is. Having the gear set in place no doubt adds friction, but how much I do not know.

So I think the most logical thing to do is set the preload so I am at the high end of the settings indicated for used bearings in the factory service manual, because 1. the bearings will not be as loose as they were before 2. they won't be too tight, and 3. they are likely to be in the correct range.

It would be nice to know if someone who has done these before has taken note of the friction on several different differentials which have the axle shafts removed but the gear set in place so they could give me a definite proper setting. But, I think going with my plan will suffice.

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1967 W110 Universal Wagon, Euro, Turbo Diesel, Tail Fins, 4 Speed Manual Column Shift, A/C
1980 W116 300SD Turbo Diesel, DB479 Walnut Brown, Sunroof, Highly Optioned, 350,000+ Miles