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putting a front tire back on the bike..

  • Thread starter Thread starter Johnny K
  • Start date Start date
J

Johnny K

Guest
Hey guys, I had bought a new front tire for my bike and had a local shop balance my tire. Any way, I am just confused a little about when the tire is back on through the axle, do I tighten the nuts on the bottom all the way tight? Then how about the axle nut on the other side of the wheel. I looked at the pics on Basscliff's site, but not too sure. If I tighten everything real tight, then the wheel doesn't move, but was wondering do I tighten the nuts first evenly tight and then the axle nut? Also how many washers are supposed to be between the nut and bottom of the fork? Some have 1 and others have 2 on mine. Thanks again.
 
According to my Clymer manual it says to assemble the axle components before mounting it on the fork. Then finger tighten the axle nut.
Lift the front wheel in place and install the axle holders and tighten the axle holder nuts finger tight. Make sure that the space between the holder and fork is equal.
Then torque the axle nut to 26 - 38 ft.-lbs. and cotter pin it.
Then torque the axle holder nut 11 - 18 ft.-lbs.
I am not sure what is correct as far as the washers. I checked my bike (same model) and there are two on one side and one on the other. Normal would be one plain washer unless a lock washer is used. Then there would be a plain washer under the lock washer.
I just checked an on-line parts fiche. There should be two washers, a plain one and a lock washer. The stack up would go plain washer, lock washer and then nut.
 
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In my factory service manual for the '79 GS1000's it says to torque the front axle holder nuts to 11-18 Ft.Lbs. allowing equal spacing in the gaps.
The axle nut itself is torqued to 26-37.5 Ft. Lbs.
Hope that is what you are looking for.

Eric
 
If the wheel won't turn you may have one of the spacers in backwards
 
Hopefully I have the spacers correctly. Im getting my tire re-balanced because at 45mph, when I took my hands off and on the handlebars it started to shake real bad. But when I get the tire back hopefully it wont have that problem. I'm going to look up how the spacers go in correctly. But thanks for the feedback guys.
 
Johnny K said:
Hopefully I have the spacers correctly. Im getting my tire re-balanced because at 45mph, when I took my hands off and on the handlebars it started to shake real bad. But when I get the tire back hopefully it wont have that problem. I'm going to look up how the spacers go in correctly. But thanks for the feedback guys.
Click to expand...
Did ya check your head bearings in the process??? Balance problems maybe, but id be more inclined to think you have steering bearings notched..
 
Did you replace wheel bearings? What about the head bearings? If you still experience shake after rebalance I would check bearings.
 
I put new bearings in with the new wheel. Before it was just a 5 yr old tire with 5 yr old bearings and no wobble at all. Now put new bearings in and I get a wobble at that speed.
 
Johnny K said:
I put new bearings in with the new wheel. Before it was just a 5 yr old tire with 5 yr old bearings and no wobble at all. Now put new bearings in and I get a wobble at that speed.
Click to expand...

Did you put the spacer in between the wheel bearings when you replaced them.
 
yup. I got my tire back yesterday and am going for a ride today. I followed the directions and torqued everything correctly. Maybe last time, I didn't torque the bottom nuts. So hopefully everything will be running smoothly. Ill post after I take a ride today. Thanks again.
 
With the proper spacers the wheel spins on the bearings. If you tightened it down and it doesn't spin the bearings/spacers are bad\wrong.
 
Everything got torqued down and spins freely. I took a ride today and at about 50-45mph when letting off the handle bars for a quick second or two it wobbles real bad, but at any other speed it doesn't wobble at all. Is it bad to ride like it is? Any other speed it's fine. If I have my hands on the bars doing 45-50mph, I couldn't tell if the bike had a wobble or not. Only if I take my hands off for that quick second at that speed it happens.
 
Steering head bearings...
No, it should not wobble with no hands. When I was younger (and dumber) I could take my hands off at 85 and steer it like a bicycle.

Eric
 
67fire said:
Steering head bearings...
No, it should not wobble with no hands. When I was younger (and dumber) I could take my hands off at 85 and steer it like a bicycle.

Eric
Click to expand...
I do that now. :rolleyes:

Did you get the tire balanced? Is the tired beaded?
If yes just tighten down the steering head a bit. Sart with a quarter turn.
 
The tire is balanced. A shop balanced it by putting it on a cylinder and wherever the weight was off, they put a weight on the wheel. I thought the balance would take place in a car type balancer. How do I know if the tire is beaded?
 
There is no way they balanced the tire if it wasn't beaded.
You can check the bead by checking the line on the tire that runs right next to the rim. It should be even the whole way around and not disappear into the rim.

Tighten the steering head. It's the big bolt between where the handle bars clamp down.
 
Too much or too little air pressure in the forks can also cause that head shake. Overtightening the steering head is not good either. With the bike on the centerstand, the forks should move easily from side to side. Have you greased the steering bearings lately?
 
I'll try to tighten the steering head bolt. I haven't had to touch that since I bought the bike 3 years ago because there were no signs of anything. Before this I had a Dunlop 110/90/19 with a tiny tiny dent in the rim. I didn't have any wobble like I'm having now. I only bought a new tire and a nice used rim is because the dent was bugging me and the tire was 5 years old. So I bought a nice used front rim with no scratches or dents and put a new pirelli sport demon 100/90/19. I changed the forks from air to progressive springs and new seals about 2 years ago. I haven't done anything to the steering head bearings because there was never anything wrong with them. I'll try to just tighten them down and see if it works.
 
A point of thought for you experienced riders. Could it be that the new tire technology has something to do with this wobble, sounds like head shake he's describing and could that be a tread pattern design that is causing this?????? Or could more grip be putting more strain on the head bearings??
 
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