Front Wheel Off-Center?

[UncleMike]

While my carbs are soaking, I've been doing some cleaning/polishing on the T.

I was cleaning the forks, and in order to do so, I took the front fender off. I always thought the fender was bent, but now I can confirm that the wheel is closer to the right fender than the left. What does this mean? Bent axle? Bent forks?

I was planning on putting dual disks on, so might this happen now sooner rather than later?

 

[Hoomgar]

Spacers put on wrong? How did they get the caliper to line up though? Mike, compare the spacer layout and caliper parts to a fiche and check for discrepancies. It should be perfectly centered.

 

[GS550joe]

PO CHanged Wheels?

PO CHanged Wheels?

Could the PO have changed the wheels before you got it? that would make a difference if the speedo drive went from an inside the hub to an outside the hub... and the spacers would be off.. does the caliper have washers shimming it over to fit the disk??
\

Joe

 

[UncleMike]

Spacers put on wrong? How did they get the caliper to line up though? Mike, compare the spacer layout and caliper parts to a fiche and check for discrepancies. It should be perfectly centered.

It almost looks like it's angled the the left if you're looking at it from the front, so that the top would lean to the left and the bottom to the right. I'll compare to the fiche and let you know.

Hopefully post pics later.

 

[UncleMike]

According to this schematic:

http://www.bikebandit.com/partsbandit/showschematic~dept_id~716523.asp

...everything looks kosher. Pics later today.

 

[kalessin]

How have you been measuring this possible wheel-out-of-alignment?

The front fender is all an unmodfied GS has for a fork brace to keep the fork lowers from letting the wheel wobble.

With the fender off, the alignment could be off. Did you take the fender off with all the weight off of the front wheel (maybe with bike on centerstand, and either the back end weighed down, or the front end jacked up)?

The easy way to measure would be to get the front wheel off the ground, put everything back together including with the fender, get the front end off the ground, and use something to measure the fork-to-rim distance on both sides. Spin the wheel around and see if there's any runout problems (i.e. variable distance from the rim to the fork leg).

Get creative with the tools and you can do this cheaply... A pencil somehow fastened on to the fork could be used to indicate runout, and a cheap plastic ruler to measure the distance when the wheel isn't turning.

 

[UncleMike]

How have you been measuring this possible wheel-out-of-alignment?

The front fender is all an unmodfied GS has for a fork brace to keep the fork lowers from letting the wheel wobble.

With the fender off, the alignment could be off. Did you take the fender off with all the weight off of the front wheel (maybe with bike on centerstand, and either the back end weighed down, or the front end jacked up)?

The easy way to measure would be to get the front wheel off the ground, put everything back together including with the fender, get the front end off the ground, and use something to measure the fork-to-rim distance on both sides. Spin the wheel around and see if there's any runout problems (i.e. variable distance from the rim to the fork leg).

Get creative with the tools and you can do this cheaply... A pencil somehow fastened on to the fork could be used to indicate runout, and a cheap plastic ruler to measure the distance when the wheel isn't turning.

No, the front end had weight on it when I took the fender off, but it was on the centerstand.

I'll make some measurements and get back to you.

Thanks!
Mike

 

[UncleMike]

Here's a pic:

http://groups.msn.com/_Secure/0UAD7AtwXmseo*Q5ALVOQJzIUXCZ0R0RzKdG7YbqmVY8MzPNV1pWOy23bK5aHV4iQwy4vU4jQUwEyumj7elYjqDdNKEo3mNK%21p5RhuKhtPFmxCMLiFIP0bXSChRwAcIUc/Picture%20005.jpg

Looking at the picture, I can get my pinky in between the wheel and the fork on the right side, but not on the left. No discernible difference in distance while spinning the wheel.

 

[UncleMike]

But looking at these:

http://groups.msn.com/_Secure/0UADl...WBhCFq0dwbQ!Ok2oI9XSCXx0AcF8d/Picture 010.jpg
http://groups.msn.com/_Secure/0VADq...rzKk!ixdvgtEnnIvLYg7wNFqjhWxm/Picture 009.jpg

It really looks like it's the fender that's off. But that still doesn't explain why there's more room on one side of the wheel than the other.

 

[UncleMike]

Measuring from the fork to the inside spoke of the wheel, it does not change at all during rotation.

Measuring from the fender bracket to the tire, the right side looking from the front is .5", while the left side is .25"

Thanks,
Mike

 

[ruddy]

Are both forks the same in the triple tree? If one is a little higher, it could be the cause.

 

[spots25]

it was like that on my GS400 when I put the GS450 wheel on it. It wasn't off that far, but I just shimmed the close side out a little, and it was even

 

[POULSEN]

Are you sure that wheel and fork are stock for this year ?
I replaced the fork at my 77' GS550 to a 81' model fork, and due to a sligthly different construction, the total of spacers were 20mm to wide.
I had to cut the 20mm from the right side spacer, to make the wheel fit and be centered. Had a PO cut differently, the wheel would have been off center.
IMHO it has to be a "spacer" problem, if the wheel were not parallel to the forks, the axis would be very difficult to fit, and the brakepads would be worn "funny".
What I don't understand, is how your brakes fit - either the caliper must be floating to the limit at one side, or the disc and/or caliper must be "shimmed".

 

[UncleMike]

What I don't understand, is how your brakes fit - either the caliper must be floating to the limit at one side, or the disc and/or caliper must be "shimmed".

Agreed. It's driving me nuts.

 

[fgh]

Fork problem

Fork problem

You said in a previous post that it looks like the wheel is leaning to the left. this would indicate the on of your fork tubes is further away from the triple tree than the other. Check to make sure that both fork tubes are mounted at the same level in the triple tree. If they are you'll need to determine that both forks are the same and are assembled correctly.

 

[UncleMike]

The wheel is about 1/8-1/4" shifted to the left if you're looking at the front of the bike by all measurements I take. This leads me to believe it's a spacer issue.

I'll take it off and doublecheck against the schematic again.

Thanks,
Mike

 

[kalessin]

The fender has to be installed to lock the fork lowers in place. Unless one of the fork lowers is not the original or correct part (doubtful), if there's no obvious runout (i.e. wheel wobbles), then it's almost certainly spacers.

(oh, another thing, I'm assuming you checked to make sure that the axle bolt is still straight...)

 

[UncleMike]

The fender has to be installed to lock the fork lowers in place. Unless one of the fork lowers is not the original or correct part (doubtful), if there's no obvious runout (i.e. wheel wobbles), then it's almost certainly spacers.

(oh, another thing, I'm assuming you checked to make sure that the axle bolt is still straight...)

Thanks for sticking with this. The axle bolt did look straight to me.

I'm waiting for my friend to come home so he can print the schematic out at his place. Seems that would be a little more accurate than my previous attempts of running from my office computer down to the garage and back, or checking against my drawing, which is sadly lacking.

 

[Hoomgar]

Mike, your fender does appear to be a little bent to the left. However, your rim has got to be installed wrong. It is not centered. Whoever did it must have compensated to get the rotor/caliper to line up correctly. There is no way that is right. I'd almost have to see pics of each side around the axle to be able to tell anything more. I'll bet spacers are in wrong. They have to be backwards, wrong position, something. It ain't right man.

 

[Basket Case]

It was already mentioned, but no answer... are your forks exactly the same in the triple tree? It's tough to tell from the pictures, but it almost looks like they might be off a bit, like one fork higher than the other.