I put the rear Switchback rim on my '07 WG today. I took it to a local shop that has an excellent mechanic to get the tires mounted and bearings installed. The front wheel went smooth, the rear not so much. When I went to put it in the right axle spacer wouldn't go in. I took the wheel back out and noticed the wheel bearing on the right side was sticking out approx. 1/8" past the hub, it comes out about even with the edge of the rotor. Is this normal? On my old spoke rims the bearings are recessed about 1/8" inside the hub. Anyone else run into this when swapping rims? I machined down the right spacer, but I may have to get another, I think I got overzealous and any have taken off 1/16" more than I needed to. Any thoughts?

Thanks,

Matt

 

If the one side is flush and the other side is not, make sure the side sticking out is pressed all the way in.
When I put mags on my Bob, I had the same issue with the front. I had to get a new spacer that was 1/8 under the stock to match the rim. I also had to measure and order new spacers so that the wheel was centered. There are aftermarket spacers you can get either off Ebay or from Drag Specialties.

 

how much of a gap is there between the wheel bearing and the inner spacer (in the rim)

 

they may have put the spacers in the wrong wheels, or pressed the wrong side in first. or maybe just did not press it in enough

 

What year is the switch back wheel from? Did the switchback have ABS? Is one of the bearings grey on the face? The ABS bearings are wider than NON ABS bearings.

 

The wheels are the new chrome ones from the HD parts catalog. The gap between the caliper bracket and wheel bearing is about 1/4". I ground the factory right spacer down to fit, but I think I went a little too far, there's a couple of thousandths movement back and forth (I don't have a gauge to measure, but I'm guessing, I can feel it like a bad tie rod on a car).

Thanks,
Matt

 

The 07 uses a 1" axle and bearings (unless you converted it), the 1" bearings are wider than the 25mm bearings used in later bikes, double row vs single row. But... rumor has it the switchback wheels have bearing pockets for the wider bearings, which throws an unknown into the mess. The side right side gets the bearing pressed in first. If it sticks out 1/8" on the rotor side, then the pocket is for the narrower 25mm bearing, OR, the tech put a spacer in first which probably shouldn't be done.


+1, seems like a mixup in bearing/spacer install.

 

I looked at the wheels with the tech and they have the deeper pockets, I'm not sure about how he pressed them in. If I can't get it figured out I'll just take the bike into him.

Thanks,

Matt

 

There should be NO gap between the inner spacer and the bearings, the spacer keeps the bearings from having any movement so they do not collapse.

My rims are from an 08 with 25mm bearings. I changed them to 1" ID to match the axle. My rear bearings are the thinner and my front bearings are the wider ones.
Thickness of the 25mm and 1" are the same.
To get everything to fit properly, I put in a 1/8" shorter crush tube spacer so that the bearings seated all the way in and then measured for new spacers. It ended up that both front spacers measured out to about 3/4" to get the tire centered.
I also tried to put narrow bearings in the front to gain more space, but they were sunk into the rim too far.

The issue I had when I did mine was opposite, my rear fit perfectly and the front needed some minor adjustments, because the bike they came off had a greater distance between the forks.

 

Thanks for the replies guys. I think I'm going to take the whole bike into the shop when it gets a little warmer. My guess is the spacer is a little too long.

Thanks,

Matt