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Question: I assume that the rear wheel needs to be exactly centered. Is that right? Fitting the wheel and brake caliper bracket with enough clearance between the bracket and rotor bolts and placing the wheel as far to the right as possible with that clearance makes the rear wheel about 1/4" too far left. That's as far as I can go without addressing the wheel hub-end thickness. If I have to do that I'll get in touch with Ride Wright wheels to see what they can do. If you tell me it won't matter I'll go ahead as is but I suspect that's not the case.
Besides, if I don't make the hub-end narrower to address the wheel and live with a 1/4" off everything is so squeezed on the right that I think I'll need to shim the calipers. Don't really want to do that.
Thanks
Last edited by number633; Jan 1, 2024 at 08:16 PM.
Not 100% I’m right, but every chopper or bIke Ive restored, I start with rear engine mount, shim front.. line up trans, shim. Once motor and tranny are perfectly aligned… then I find wheel center and get pulley or sprocket lined up perfectly to tranny sprocket. Last wheel spacing and brake.
Usually, what you’re doing solves itself and is aligned with the front if the motor is square. In truth I’ve always delt with quality frames
Last edited by Rains2much; Jan 3, 2024 at 12:48 PM.
Not 100% I’m right, but every chopper or bIke Ive restored, I start with rear engine mount, shim front.. line up trans, shim. Once motor and tranny are perfectly aligned… then I find wheel center and get pulley or sprocket lined up perfectly to tranny sprocket. Last wheel spacing and brake.
Usually, what you’re doing solves itself and is aligned with the front if the motor is square. In truth I’ve always delt with quality frames
Everything you say would be my plan but dealing with all aftermarket stuff tends to throw little challenges in the way. This is a Rolling Thunder frame and the wheels are from Ride Wright and when ordering them it was a challenge to specify dimensions for a custom so the wheel issue may not solve itself. I'm thinking that (i) the wheel/tire should be centered down the frame (although I read Harleys don't always come that way it just seems wrong to be 1/4" too far left) and I can turn spacers to do that alignment as well as line up the caliper bracket so the calipers are centered on the rotor, (ii) I'll square the engine/tranny/primary as you say, and (iii) deal with the last connection from drive to final sprocket lastly. Am I off in that thinking? Learning here...
BTW, the Wilwood Dynapro will not fit into the rear wheel so I am switching to two Wilwood GP310 rear calipers and a Billet Proof® dual rear caliper bracket. I already have two GP310's front calipers and brackets for the springer.
I am running Lyndall composite rotors up front and a Lyndall black steel rear rotor. The GP310 calipers take Wilwood's pad plate #6208 and these only come in sintered BP10 compounds. But the composite rotors need organic and so does the black steel to keep the black color. I found that Lyndall organic pads #7138 are direct drop ins and come in three levels of aggressiveness. I'll try the medium Gold Plus for the fronts and the lightest compound, Z Plus, for the rears. Also in searching I found out that EBC makes organics that will drop in which I might try down the line: FA Series - EBCFA095.
If I ever switch to stainless rotors the I'll have the BP10 pads...
Everything you say would be my plan but dealing with all aftermarket stuff tends to throw little challenges in the way. This is a Rolling Thunder frame and the wheels are from Ride Wright and when ordering them it was a challenge to specify dimensions for a custom so the wheel issue may not solve itself. I'm thinking that (i) the wheel/tire should be centered down the frame (although I read Harleys don't always come that way it just seems wrong to be 1/4" too far left) and I can turn spacers to do that alignment as well as line up the caliper bracket so the calipers are centered on the rotor, (ii) I'll square the engine/tranny/primary as you say, and (iii) deal with the last connection from drive to final sprocket lastly. Am I off in that thinking? Learning here...
Thanks
The more I search and read the more I think I'll live with 1/4" off center. If the final run-in tracking/handling is screwy I can return to the off center/hub end thickness question. No sense in machining a thinner hub end anyway until Tech Cycles sends the primary and I install the motor/primary/tranny to see where the sprocket alignment sits. Based on my readings, it may be that after the front sprocket is set and lined up with the rear that the wheel ends up 1/4" off as per what seems to be in the neighborhood of Harley's design on a lot of evo softails.
Looking at an 85-90 softail/FX service manual it has offset factors that vary for different models. One issue I have is I cannot match my build with any particular model other than an "evo softail springer" (Rolling Thunder's frame nomenclature) but with all aftermarket parts. Harley manuals are only helpful sometimes bure often not. The frame is an Evo softail but 1" axle and the rear wheel is "FLH '09 and above" per the RWW invoice back in 2018. I ordered not fully understanding the potential changes but did know enough to specify 1" bearings for the RT axle! I don't know Harleys well enough to know whether this mismatch is part of the problem, or even it it's a problem at all yet.
To be continued...
Last edited by number633; Jan 3, 2024 at 09:31 PM.
