Any trick to aligning the rear wheel on 2005 Road king?

I have how the manual shows how to do it. Looking for a possible better way so I don’t have to tear the bike apart.

 

There's a fundamental difference between 'vehicle alignment' and wheel alignment! Vehicle alignment is aligning the engine/trans unit in the rubber mounts and it isn't necessary to do that very often. Assuming that your vehicle alignment is fine, aligning the rear wheel should be relatively simple and can be done using string, a long straight thing, even line of sight by eye, comparing the rear wheel to the front.

 

This is a pretty good video. I have not tried it, but it makes sense to me.

 

I do not want to do an engine/trans align. Just want to insure the rear wheel is at 90. I marked the cams before I took off the wheel and my marks are back.

Just want to see if any tricks to double check that.

Anyone?

 

Use a special tool https://www.motionpro.com/motorcycle...r_hd__08-0368/

Or a string, or other measuring device.....

Measure between the center of the axle bolt and a fixed point on the swing arm (Dynas and Sporsters have a small hole in swing arm, located approximately 6” in front of rear axle) or the center of the swing arm bolt/pivot point ... compare the measurement on both sides...

 

You can look at this article that I wrote for AIM:

http://csharpharley.blogspot.com/p/touring-dyna.html

 

If you have the rear axle with the cam on each side, even if you don't like what you find, there isn't much you can do. The old fashioned way was to check the measurement from the center of the rear axle to the center of the swing arm pivot shaft and comparing that from one side to the other. The little chrome covers on the pivot shaft access port must be removed. Using two pieces of stiff wire with a 90 degree bend on each end and putting the end of the L bend into each dimple, then tape the overlap of the wires together gets the first measurement. Check against the other side and adjust the jack screws as necessary to set both alignment and belt tension. This was for the machines that set wheel position with the jack screws on each side and very fine adjustments were possible. Less convenient, but superior to the cams in my opinion. Straightened coat hangars are popular for shade tree adjustments. No reason you can't make the measurement as described, but if you don't like the results, there isn't any adjustment short of grinding the cam a little at a time or forcing a shim between the cam and the boss.