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So I had the Harley dealership put new tires on my 92 flhtp and I'm pretty sure they installed the front tire backwards. They are telling me that they installed it correctly. I pulled the tires off the bike and took the rims in to get the new tires installed due to having really old and dry rotted tires and no way to trailer the bike to the dealer. After I got the tires installed I took them home and tried to install them. Rear tire went on perfect but the front tire is having issues, its really tight on the break caliper on the left side as you are sitting on the bike and the wheel speed sensor wont seat into the rim all the way, I noticed that the wheel bearings are offset with on side sitting in farther than the other side. The wheel speed sensor sits out about 1/4 further out than it did before I pulled the tire. I didn't think about taking pictures before I pulled the tire and am hoping one of you fine people would be willing to take a couple quick pics of their front tire showing all the spacers and wheel speed sensor so I can make sure I'm not being a dipshit and doing something wrong. I had one of my buddies that went to school to be a Harley mechanic look at it and said they installed it backwards on the rim, but two of their master mechanics are saying its right. I however trust my buddy and my own eyes more than I trust their people. Any help here would be greatly appreciated.
I'm sure there are reasons not to mount a tire backward, but clearance issues isn't one of them. Does your bike have two rotors?? (I don't know). If there is only one, then it's pretty obvious which way it would go on. From there, I'd check if you got the spacers reversed.
Check the tire, they usually have an arrow indicating direction of rotation.
It has two rotors. I did have them repack the bearings while they where out... so they may have installed those backwards but i think they are the same bearings (not 100% about that).
This may help for where thing go, follow the link for sizes of the spacers. The bearings need to be set per the service manual for spacing. If they repacked the bearings and did not put the spacers back correctly, or you did not put them back correctly, things will be off.
Number 9 below is a spacer that comes in various thicknesses and adjusts the location of the wheel with regards to the bearing.
1. Which way is the directional arrow on the tire pointing?
2. If the directional arrow is pointing the wrong way, is it possible they installed a rear tire on the front? Some folks do that for longer tread life but you do have to mount it “reversed.”
3. Make sure your valve stem is on the right (not left) side of the bike.
The right side bearing sits much deeper in the wheel center than the left. The right spacer is bout 1-1/4 long and about 1/2" is exposed beyond the seal when seated against the bearing
Valve stem on a Touring front wheel is on left for 16 x 3.00 mag wheels.
If the caliper is tight against the rotor inside half, need to compress the piston and slide caliper inward. Always clean/grease the mount pins when removed.
I'm guessing while riding it around, the left bearing fell away from the race, cocked slightly and the right one did the same, pushing the bearing spacer against the left is why the speedo drive won't go in. Speedo drive is the left axle spacer and the drive tang has to be in the notch of the rotor. The tang drive disc sits directly the against the hub with a thin cork washer/seal between them.
Simple fix - put the axle thru the bearings with the right side axle spacer on axle. That'll line up the bearings and bearing spacer. Remove the axle, put wheel under fender and the rest is easy....
front tire
