Wheel Identification

[Simon_A]

Hi Guys
A mate of mine has got hold of a couple of multi spoke alloy wheels Pt nos. 43402-82 & 41121-79 and wants to fit one of these on the front of his early 90 Heritage. The problem is:-
(a) what were these originally fitted to? (best present guess would be a glide of some sort)
(b) what is the bearing arrangement? as this is, mostly missing.
We have pictures from a parts list covering 1973 & later wheels, but these still appear different than what we have.
The wheels seem, to need a support plate, one side carrying a ball race, possibly pulley / sprocket side, and possibly a taper the other.
Any clarification appreciated.

[Noddy]

Simon.

I've checked my parts books for you, FL models 1941-1984 and FX models 1971-1984, but the numbers are not in either of them . If you can email me a picture of the wheels, I may be able to help a bit more. Over to you.

[kiwidave]

I believe it is easier than you think - the only possible hiccup is that if those are genuine part numbers it is highly likely the rear wheel will be from a chain drive bike....and yours is a belt final drive. Trickier. Belt final drive only really started to come through in 1982/83 ...... on FLH Electra Glides and FXSB Low Riders but was not universal on Big Twins until 1986.

Otherwise...........

choose your sprocket side and disc side if not immediately apparent, and use the appropriate spacers (FX spacers are different to the FLH ones) and then the shims and bearings are universal.

On the front wheel, the speedo drive slot should be on the left.

That's how it worked for me anyhow. My 1985 FXEF has a 1978 FLH 16in rear ''Electra Glide mag'' and a 1978 Super Glide front 19in ''AMF mag''

[Simon_A]

I'll try and put some pictures up later in the week. The part nos are cast into the wheels so I'm assumeing that they are HD nos, there's a couple of differences between the wheel's that is throwing me:- the older one has, what can only be discribed as a needle roller in one side, with an inner tube/spacer located by a circlip. The other side is about the right size for a standard taper bearing, well recessed into the wheel.
The newer wheel, has a taper bearing one side and a seperate carrier the other. This has a ball race within it and a register on the outside to accept a disk or pulley / sprocket.
All the shovels that I have delt with had 'star' type wheels with the standard 2 taper bearing arrangement.
Sprocket / pulley alinement isn't an issue, as the intention is to install this as a front.
The only reason for the mod is to end up with a wheel that will except a security chain.

[Simon_A]

[kiwidave]

Simon i am wondering if that separate carrier is some kind of custom bike offset /spacer deal. Never seen that and those are virtually identical to what I have on my bike.

Does that wheel's hub hole have a little lip inside either side bout an inch where a bearing race would sit? Can't quite tell.

Nice wheels mate - those are rare now and can be pricey

[Simon_A]

Sorry about the picture definition.
Both wheels have a counter bore one side 2 1/4 dia x 1/2 deep which that carrier locates in.....what else would go in there?
On the newer wheel there is an outer race of a taper bearing in an 1" deep counter bore as you have said, no sprocket or disk register on either side. However the older of the two has this needle bearing I spoke about earlier, and that wheel does have the disk/sprocket register
Still puzzled as to what pieces I am missing. Bearing spacers etc.

[SJC69]

That rear has the look of an early tour glide wheel {FLT}, the rubber mounted twin headlight fixed to the frame fairing things. I believe they had that set up as a drive side bearing support.
There were also some models that ran an enclosed chain.

This is from the '84 - '88 FLT & FXR Manual



If so there was a major problem with the bearings which was finally resolved after several recalls and modified replacement parts.

One of my Dutch friends had one fitted to the rear of his chop which kept chewing up bearings, including when he was here for the '89 Super Rally. An urgent trip to Fred Warr’s was necessary and Dave the parts man spotted what it was right away and said there was a recall and modified parts were needed.
Unfortunately my friend was not convinced it had been cured and replaced the wheel.


I can't say for certain which and what wheels were affected!

[Simon_A]

Interesting......be funny if we had one of each! one pre-mod, and one with the mod carried out. However the dates on the part nos. still don't really work with that theory, or do they?
Was there any difference between front and rear 84ish FLT?

[SJC69]

The idea is that with the enclosed chain that you do not remove all the chain guard, chain etc to get the wheel out.
That all stays in place you remove the bolts that hold the chain wheel to the wheel through an access hole one at a time and then just take the wheel off. IE the chain wheel mounts to the support bearing spacer.

I believe the front and rear wheels were not the same.

I know 'your' wheel is an earlier part but that is the only book I have with that sort of set up. I don't have a parts book unfortunatley for that time period either.