Front Axle Mounting Detail ?? : V-Twin Forum: Harley Davidson Forums

petelogan · 10-13-2005, 05:12 AM

1980 FLH - stock front forks and cast wheel appear original.

During routine maintenance I found some play in the front wheel, so pulled the axle, and I can't understand what I'm looking at, so I immediately thought of you guys

I have the Service Manual, but not the Parts Manual.

On the right side of the bike (non-caliper side) the hub cap bears on the surface of the spacer that protrudes through the covering washer and circlip that retain the wheel bearing assembly in place. When assembled, it is clear that this puts a little pressure on the tapered wheel bearing, which tightens it up to operate without any play.

But on the left side of the bike (caliper side) there is no equivalent piece, so the wheel bearing is running without any outside pressure on it, and has some play.

There is a shoulder on this side of the axle, which has a spacer against it (made of washers by some previous owner) that spaces the wheel off from the fork so that the brake rotor clears the fork, and also appears to stop the axle nut pulling the fork itself out of alignment.

It seems to me that there ought to be another spacer between these washers and the protruding wheel bearing spacer in order to keep the left wheel bearing assembly tight, however, the Service Manual (page 2.5) appears to show only one spacer on this side.

The Manual also says that wheel bearing end play should be checked only after tightening the axle nut and slider cap nuts. Adjustment to be made by using a longer or shorter spacer between the left and right wheel bearing assemblies (ie: in the middle of the wheel hub).

This statement seems to me to be quite illogical if the axle nut is not pulling up the wheel bearings.

In short, it seems to me that there should be two spacers here. One riding against the shoulder to stop the axle nut pulling the fork leg out of alignment, and to space off the brake rotor from the fork leg, and a second spacer riding between the outer spacer and the wheel bearing spacer to take the play out of the left wheel bearing.

Does anyone know for sure how this lot should actually be set up (I know, silly question - of course you do

), or have a Parts Manual which shows it in better detail than the Service Manual.

Appreciate any help, cos it's good weather here, and I want to get back out, but not with a sloppy front wheel

Thanks.

Pete

thedog · 10-13-2005, 05:39 AM

I've been meaning to ask you, Pete, how far are you from the capitol?

petelogan · 10-13-2005, 06:43 AM

56km. About 35 miles. It's an hour's ride on good riding roads.

Pete

thedog · 10-13-2005, 07:17 AM

Beautiful city, Luxembourg. Fifteen years ago, three of us drove there from Germany, parked in a garage, walked across the street to a Mexican restaurant and sat down at the bar. The beertender heard us talking and asked where in the US we lived and I told him Mobile, Alabama. He turned around, slipped a Jimmy Buffet (from Mobile) tape in and asked us what we wanted. We ordered 3 different beers from 3 different countries and paid with 3 different currencies - no problem. The park is quite nice.

Ed Y · 10-13-2005, 07:17 AM

Pete, it's been a long time since I pulled a wheel from that era but seems to me there ought to be a speedo drive that serves as a spacer.

petelogan · 10-13-2005, 09:56 AM

Thanks, Ed. Mine has a drive off the gearbox. Book says the speedo drive on the axle came in '81.

I'm beginning to think I lost a bit when I took it apart

Pete

petelogan · 10-13-2005, 09:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by thedog

Beautiful city, Luxembourg. Fifteen years ago, three of us drove there from Germany, parked in a garage, walked across the street to a Mexican restaurant and sat down at the bar. The beertender heard us talking and asked where in the US we lived and I told him Mobile, Alabama. He turned around, slipped a Jimmy Buffet (from Mobile) tape in and asked us what we wanted. We ordered 3 different beers from 3 different countries and paid with 3 different currencies - no problem. The park is quite nice.

Yeah, wife works in the city, but I only really go down there to the HD or car dealers. We live in the north of Luxembourg, in the Ardennes.

Pete

petelogan · 10-14-2005, 04:13 PM

Well, another 24 hours goes by, and I think Ed has it right

I believe, based on experiment, that what we have here is a post 1981 axle which is rigged to expect a speedo drive, but doesn't have one.

I've always known that this bike is a Bitsa Special, so no worries there

I believe I cracked the problem today, but it's now almost 11pm and I've had a few, so I'll get on to recording this magic moment in history with diagrams for posterity on Monday

For the moment, I'll tease y'all with "I think this is a 1981 or later axle on a 1980 frame".

Now I know you'll all sleep well on that

Of course, the previous owner's 'solution' is gonna cost a wheel bearing kit. But when was that ever not the case

Gotta love the builder

Pete

petelogan · 10-17-2005, 09:30 AM

Well, Lord knows what we've got here, but I came up with a solution anyway.

The bike had previously been running with a single simple spacer on the Axle thread end, and hence no external compression on the front axle bearings, so I'm pretty sure that has worn the bearings a lot more than they should, but for now they squeeze up OK on the tapers, so I'll run it like this and see how long they last.

I put the story on a series of webpages. Just go to the link below and click on each image to get to the next page. There's 8 pages, and the last one links back to the beginning.

http://webplaza.pt.lu/logan/axle/page0.html

Pete