I took the front wheel off yesterday to polish the chrome sliders and front wheel, hub and spacers.

After reinstalling the wheel I went to align the fork per the HD Shop Manual. The manual calls for torquing the axle nut (left side) then loosening the right side axle cap bolts. Inserting a 7/16" drill rod through the hole in the axle and setting the right slider cast in until the slider touches the drill rod.

Well there is absolutely no way I could get the slider to touch the drill rod and tighten the cap bolts per the instructions.

Yes, the spacers are in the correct position. The slightly longer spacer is installed on the left side of the wheel.

Has anyone else had or seen this issue?

I test rode the bike after my work and noted no ill effects at slow speed and eventually slightly faster than posted highway speed.

 

Are you saying you had the right side cap nuts tight before you torqued the axle nut?
I leave those 2 nuts loose and allow the axle to draw the drill bit into the slider, then tighten those 2 nuts. Works every time.

 

I just recently had my front wheel off and I left the 2 cap screws loose as I tightened the axle nut to torque specs. I then stuck a drill bit in the hole and it was very close to touching so I went ahead and tightened the 2 cap screws to torque specs.

 

Once the axle nut was torqued to 50-55 ft lbs, I loosed the axle cap bolts. At this point, it was impossible to cast in the right slider to touch the 7/16 drill rod (with axle cap "fasteners" loose).

On other HD's, I've pulled/rotated the right slider outboard to gain contact the drill rod. It appears the right slider on this bike is up against the ledge machined into the axle and it is simply impossible to pull or cast the slider and contact the drill rod. There is a gap of ~.110" between the drill rod and outboard side of the slider.

 

Is the rotor in the caliper correctly? Does it rotate freely?

 

Everything rotates freely with no jamming or interference. No vibrations at slow speed or 55mph.

I installed the caliper after I attempted to align the fork. I didn't want the caliper to interference with the fork alignment.

 

Jacked it up, loosened fender, removed axle cap. Cast spacer looked OK (and is on the rear side of the slider). Went through the entire process again. Couldn't pull the slider up against the drill rod, but, got the gap between the slider and the drill rod reduced to ~.032". I can live with that since the slider has more of a gap now with the right axle spacer.

 

I don't like the stated procedure for aligning fork legs.

The idea is that you want the fork legs parallel as much as possible so they will not try to bind during their up and down motion.

Pretty much all bike forks have an open clamp on one of the fork leg slider bottoms through which the axle passes. After you snug up the nut on your axle, you make sure the pinch clamp is loose and usually you bounce the front end up and down so that it will align itself. You then tighten the clamp and re-check the axle nut.

If you really wanna get **** about this, get one of these:

http://www.motionpro.com/motorcycle/partno/08-0412/