I have another dilemma while trying to get my bike finished. I had to drop the rear wheel to mount my fender and wiring harness and sissy bar. Well there seems to be a problem with the wheel spacing between the fender and the tire. I have room on the left side to stick my fingers up, but no room at all on the right side to stick even my finger tips in. My friend who's had 3 of these old Ironhead sportsters, said the rim is made to go on one side only, the wheel is offset for right side drive, but most of the Harley's and most other bikes are left hand drive. Is this my problem that the rim is incorrectly laced?

 

It is possible to re-lace or have re-laced the wheel. I had this done some years ago on an Evo Sportster.

 

Yes, basically your rim is spoked up with the incorrect offset of the rim in relation to the hub.
You can fix this yourself, or take it to a shop and pay them to correct the offset.
If you want to do it yourself you will need a good fitting spoke wrench to start with. Not some 6 inch Cresent wrench either, a real spoke wrench is what is needed.
You can remove the tire and use the swing arm as a truing stand.
Start at the valve stem hole.
If you want to move the rim to the left side, loosen the first spoke nipple going to the right side of the rim 1/4 turn. The next spoke will be going to the left. Tighten this nipple 1/4 turn. Next spoke is right side.... loosen 1/4 turn, next spoke is leftside, tighten 1/4 turn etc, etc for all 40 spokes.
As a rule of thumb 1/4 turn is going to move the rim over about .020 of an inch, as I recall.

So you can calculate how many times you can expect to go around the rim and all 40 spokes.
If you want to move the rim over 1/2 inch (.500 divided by .020) equals 25 times around the rim using 1/4 turn on the nipples.
You can use more than a quarter turn but you will have better control using 1/4 turns.

Whatever is the difference in the left side offset and the right side offset....... you want to move the rim over half that amount.

When you are done the rim should be in the correct location and the wheel reasonably straight.
Expect some minor tweeking of the spoke nipple adjustment to true up the wheel perfectly. Perfect being less than .020 radial and side to side runout.
pg

 

Wow! That seems to tedious of a job, I talked to a local guy on the phone who said he could move it any where I wanted basically for $75 bucks. But thanks for the technical info PG

 

Yes it can be tedious. Unless you love to build wheels as I do, then you are far better off letting someone do it for you.
$75 is a fair price for the work and it will take him about 45 minutes to finish it.
pg