I'll spare you story as to why I've NOT let anyone touch any of mine since 1974....

And I know this is gonna sound dumb, but is the air valve still on the same side of the bike as it was?

I don't remember when they changed the axles and bearings to the sealed type, so if you're sure that yours is the larger axle with sealed bearings, disregard the rest of this post...

The wheel bearing race bore in the cast spoke wheels IS offset. Again, assuming it's using tapered bearings. The wheel bearing on the right sits much deeper into the wheel that the left side, therefore, the spacers are a different length left/right.

OK, I'll own up to something, I thought it dumb to have my rear air valve on the right and the front one on the left, so once I changed the front tire, put it on reversed so the valve would be on the right and no way in hell would it go up in there. Yeah, it'd fit into the calipers (I have duals) but my speedo drive is on the left of the wheel and is the spacer for the left and it was too shallow and the spacer for the right wouldn't go between the bearing and fork. So, .. I'm feeling really stupid and changing my tire again...

Point being, either the wheel is on backward, or the wrong spacer is on the wrong side of the axle... and that's just a guess, based soley on the pictures you posted.

OK, I just looked again and saw you have only one caliper, so I get to feel stupid again.... No matter what though, your TIRE should be centered between the forks.... been a long 2 days at work guys

 

I think I understand what you're saying. I know the wheel isn't turned around the wrong way because it has an arrow on it pointing in the direction it's supposed to rotate. It is very possible that the spacers are on the wrong sides though.

One of my problems in figuring this out is my bike came from the factory with a laced wheel. It has a Thunderstar cast wheel on it now, which it's had on it since I've owned it. There are two diagrams in my service manual. One is the brakedown of the Wide Glide laced wheel assembly, the other is a cast wheel, but for the FXD narrowglide front ends. Anyway, especially without having it appart to look at the indivdual pieces, both diagrams are kind of confusing. What I would think is the right side spacer, one of the diagrams is calling an oil seal.

This is really bugging me. If I had a garage and a mc jack I would probably be out there taking it appart right now. As is though I probably won't get the chance to check it out until Friday evening or Saturday.

I have another question if someone knows the answer. The spacers that align the wheel in between the forks, do they also set the end play? Or, is there another spacer in the hub assembly just for end play?

 

On my '98 Wide Glide (with completely custom front end) the end play is set with a shorter or longer spacer in the hub buried between the tapered roller bearings. If you need more end play, you make that spacer longer (shim or replace), if you need less end play, you make that spacer shorter (machine it or replace). Taking the wheel off shouldn't affect end play. I seldom check mine, hardly ever when taking the wheel off. Should definitely be done when installing new bearings. The outside wheel spacers only position the wheel between the legs and provide preload against the inner race of the bearings.

By the way, on mine, the longer spacer goes on the left side (brake side).

 

Thanks, that definately helps. I think the first chance I get I'm going to remove the front wheel and check the spacers.

 

Here's a mach-up of my front axle setup as looking from in front of the bike. The brake side would be on the right of this image.

My axle (shown red) slip through the wheel (wheel removed from image) from the non-brake side. The longer yellow spacer is on the brake side, the shorter orange spacer on the non-brake side. The non-brake side fork lower (blue chunk on left in image) has the pinch clamp which is not visible in the image.

As I tighten the flat head cap screw, the axle gets drawn towards the brake side. It's shoulder eventually seats against the orange spacer which in turn is seated against the inner bearing race, purple inner spacer, other inner bearing race, yellow spacer, and eventually the yellow spacer seats against the brake side fork lower. Once that cap screw is torqued, the pinch clamps screws on the underside of the non-brake side lower are tightened.

As you can see in the image, there is a gap between the non-brake side lower and the spacer. This gap (at least in the axle setup I've shown) is perfectly fine. But my wheel is centered. The length of the brake side spacer centers the wheel, the other spacer need to be just long enough to make sure that the bearing races get preloaded while tightening the axle (not allow the axle to bottom out in the brake side fork lower before preloading the bearing races). I have replaced my non-brake side spacer with a longer one so the gap between the spacer and lower is virtually un-noticeable.

To create more end play (as measured with an indicator on a mag base) the center (purple) spacer is made longer so the bearings' inner races are actually held wider apart than the outer races in the hub of the wheel.

Again, this is my aftermarket setup which may differ from yours.

 

will add my 2 cents experience.

My 98 WG had the longer spacer on the brake side, short one on the right, with a gap between the spacer and right side fork cap. Changed the lowers to chrome 2000+ lowers, and had to reverse the spacers to center wheel and the brake pads. Now it is perfect with the short spacer on the left, brake side, and the long spacer on the right, and about 1/4" gap when nut torqued to 50 lbs.

Not sure about your cast wheels, but the picture looks like they forgot the left spacer all together

good luck.

 

Looks fine to me. I thought I had a gap too one time. Sent my pic to my mechnic. There is a ridge on the axle that the spacer rests on.

 

Have you checked the wheel alignment (front to back)? If not, get yourself a couple straight 2x4's and check it.

After reading the post a couple times, you probably need to get some info from the custom wheel company that mfg'd the cast wheel you're using.

 

The wheel is made by Harley, they call it a Thunderstar wheel. It was on the bike when I bought it, so unfortunately I don't know who orginally installed it. I never noticed it being off center before having my tires changed here recently though.

 

The end play (bearing load) is adjusted with shims behind one of the wheel bearings, (Doesn't matter which side) The laced wheels actually did have different length spacers (between the wheel bearing) which were color coded. The mag wheels used only one length of bearing spacer. On whichever side the shims are used, there will be a special washer which has an abutment to contact the inner race of the bearing. Otherwise, the shims would be forced against the bearing cage and failure would result in a very few miles. Also, if the bearing preload is not correctly set upon installation, the same will result. I won't bother you with that procedure just yet.

The correct end play (preload) for the bearings is .002 for the front. So just for a shadetree check... if you had it jacked up and someone hold the handlebars tight against the stop and you grab the wheel at the top and bottom, you WILL (or should) feel just a tiny bit of wiggle. That is normal.

I still think the axle spacers may be on reversed. If you can get a half-way decent measurement, with even a ruler and eyeball, measure the right and left spacers, subtract the difference and see if that's about how far off your tire looks.... Straight-edge check is a good idea too if you have 2 pieces of angle iron long enough or can find straight 2by4s, that'll get you close... but I never use them to align rubber mount bikes

PS if you can post a photo looking straight at the front wheel and include from above the front fender all the way to the ground, that'd help a lot. And does the brake rotor seem closer to the fork than before? That should be easy to remember assuming you've washed it more than a few times