lining up rear wheel, street bob

[wizhard]

Hi.
just replaced my rear wheel, lined the wheel up by making sure the belt runs fairly central in rear pully, can any one offer advice on how to check the wheel is properly lined up as i don't think its quite right yet.
thanks
mike

[Limey_Dave]

With a solid engine mount the basic check is with a straight edge.An 8 foot flouresent tube is ok,but fragile.
Measure exact width of both tyres at widest point and use packing for any diff.
Straight edge should touch front and back of eack tyre (4 points)

[Oilslick]

There is a hole in the swinging arm just forward of the axle. Get an old cycle spoke or similar and put a 90 degree crank in it then fit in hole and mark the spoke where it crosses the centre of the axle. Compare to the other side.

Hope this makes sense. It will be obvious when you look.

[wizhard]

Originally Posted by Oilslick

There is a hole in the swinging arm just forward of the axle. Get an old cycle spoke or similar and put a 90 degree crank in it then fit in hole and mark the spoke where it crosses the centre of the axle. Compare to the other side.

Hope this makes sense. It will be obvious when you look.

brilliant, never even noticed them, will get on it right now.
many thanks, for replies to question.
Mike

[Roy]

Mike

Not sure if you have a belt tension gauge, however your need to make sure your belt is neither too tight or too loose (http://www.harley-davidson-hangout.c...elt-gauge.html). You can either get a tool (which I am about to do) or take it into a HD dealer for them to check etc.

As a note, there is a bit of a procedure in the HD service manual for tightening the rear pulley correctly and to the right torque. Take it you have seen all this (I had a pulley come off my streetbob back in 07, expensive fix...)??

Be interested in seeing pictures of your bike with the new rear wheel


Cheers, Roy

[Limey_Dave]

Roy
It's not a new wheel,he's replaced it on the bike after fixing a puncture.

Pay attention at the back.

[grbrown]

An alternative to a fragile light tube (never heard that before, but brilliant!) is a suitable plank or strip of wood (often not very straight), or strip of metal. One local MoT station has a plank with small blocks fitted under it, to raise it enough to contact both tyres at two points. Looks like a dachsund bench!

You can check wheel alignment by sight, without any tools, with a little practice. An alternative is a length of string. Tie it to a spoke in the rear wheel, then wrap it around the tyre and pull it to the front of the bike, so it passes the edges of both tyres at two points on each, below the line of the frame.

You can then adjust pointing of the front wheel to its optimum and, with the string just touching the rear tyre at two points, see where it lies relative to the two points on the front tyre. With a long enough length of string you can do this both sides at the same time. If necessary adjust the rear wheel in small increments until both sides of the front tyre are the same.

Note on bikes with fat tyres on both ends that the front is often slightly wider than the rear, which sounds odd but is so (16 inch Avon Venoms are 136mm wide at the front, 133mm at the rear).

[Oilslick]

I've used all sorts of methods. Planks/Blocks, lasers etc but still get a slight drift to the left hands off. I can sit over to the right and it will track straight.

Is this down to the weight imbalance i.e. primary? 06 Dyna BTW.

[Limey_Dave]

Originally Posted by Oilslick

I've used all sorts of methods. Planks/Blocks, lasers etc but still get a slight drift to the left hands off. I can sit over to the right and it will track straight.

Is this down to the weight imbalance i.e. primary? 06 Dyna BTW.

More likely to be camber I'd have thought,even on M-Way there's some for water run off.
The above goes out the window when a truck catches fire and they just surface the inside lane,leaving the middle lane to fill up like a canal.

[wizhard]

Originally Posted by Oilslick

I've used all sorts of methods. Planks/Blocks, lasers etc but still get a slight drift to the left hands off. I can sit over to the right and it will track straight.

Is this down to the weight imbalance i.e. primary? 06 Dyna BTW.

been out on bike this morning and is exactly the same, otherwise seems ok.

Mike