Front Wheel Off-Center?

[Guest]

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?

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/0UAD7A...ture%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/0UADlAtgXk8ao*Q5ALVOQJ*vlso0qkkt8cv90kAelOXQ4P94dDYNjn3DPXQqChmYczKsJUIBVgbiQ5D0S9UNn5n!W5uBpwpdOc4fWBhCFq0dwbQ!Ok2oI9XSCXx0AcF8d/Picture%20010.jpg

http://groups.msn.com/_Secure/0VADqArkYQyqo*Q5ALVOQJ!ROLShBrve3xwGkCostFVEFh4ONS7WgCoyLAYI7ohKkeaIX9snc4ves8feO0uUB9feK9xYPYeecMOvrzKk!ixdvgtEnnIvLYg7wNFqjhWxm/Picture%20009.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

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.