In the next day or two, I'll be removing my front and rear wheels on my '03 Heritage Classic in order to replace both tires. I save a ton of $$ bybringing to the shop just the wheels as opposed to the whole bike. Anything I need to be aware of during the process? What's the best way to align the rear wheel?

 

my dealer only charges $40 a tire for balancing and mounting on the bike. Hardly worth the headaches of trying to get the bike balanced well enough to be able to remove both tires. Additionally, the rear tire must be up pretty high to be able to drop it under the fender to remove. Pretty risky if you don't have the right equipment. Otherwise do one tire at a time.

 

Get a Bike hoist.

The back alignment capscrews? I use a sharpie marker to mark the top(from the center of the capscrew up). I turn them both out 12 revolutions. When I put the rear tire back on, I alternate 2 revs on each untill I'm backto thenumber I backed them out at. This will put your rear tire back where it was.

Put the axle back in the way it came out. I thought I'd save some labor by shoving it in from the left to the right. (Save me from taking my rear staggered pipe off to get the axle out) DO NOT DO THIS. If you ever lose the cotter key that goes through the nut, the way the wheel rotates could loosen the axle nut and cause your axle to come out.

 

no rocket science. I did it on mine, no big deal. get it up on a lift, or just do one at a time. read the manual. for alignment, just go off the center of the swingarm pivot bolt on each side and make sure it matches the distance to the center of the rear axle. You can also count threads and see that they match up how many turns you got it back.
the front is easier, take off the fender and have at it.

 

Don't forget to throw some anti-seize on the axles when you re-install 'em. They will go in without it, but you don't want to be the person pulling them back out in 10k miles or so...

 

Yes is is real easy. I use tape on the axel nuts. I found it is a little eaiser than the sharpie. Another good tool is a micrometer.

 

Removal went well, now to the assembling. Do the index marks on the front wheel axle spacer go to the inside or out? I didn't pay attention to that during removal.

 

I ALWAYA JUST MEASURE HOW MUCH IS THERE AND MAKE IT THE SAME AS IT WAS. AND LIKE THE OTHER GUY SAID EITHER PUT SOME ANTI-SEEZE OR SOME WHEEL BEARING GREASE ON THOSE AXELS EVERYTIME YOU INSTALL THEM, YOU WILL SAVE YOUR SELF A HEADACHE NEXT TIME AROUND. IF YOU HAVE NEVER HAD YOUR AXELS OUT BEFORE PREPARE TO BEAT THEM OUT CAUSE HARLEY FROM THE FACTORY DOESNT PUT ANY LUBE ON THEM.