Re-installed front wheel - gap next to Rt fork leg??

Hi there,

is that gap between the step on the axle and the front wheel bearing/spacer or just the fork leg and the bearing/spacer?

The first is wrong the second is right.

Carl

If you do up the axle nut, tighten the two clamp bolts on the left fork leg then bounce the forks up and down a few times before tightening the two bolts to clamp on the right hand side. This helps to make sure the fork legs are parallel.

Hope that helps, Carl

Oh, wish i could help on the picture front but struggle with them too!

plumbbob said:

If you do up the axle nut, tighten the two clamp bolts on the left fork leg then bounce the forks up and down a few times before tightening the two bolts to clamp on the right hand side. This helps to make sure the fork legs are parallel.

Hope that helps, Carl

Oh, wish i could help on the picture front but struggle with them too!

Click to expand...

Sometimes a tap on the bottom of the right fork leg with a soft (nylon, ally) hammer) will assist. Anotehr trick is to get a lever (screwdriver, or tyre lever) and move the fork lef out or in, and then bounce and see what happens. If the legs are not parallel, you will feel the stiction created when bouncing the legs.

Steve

Hi guys, the exact same thing has happened to me. Reading above I don't understand if the gap is meant to be there or not.
Does anyone have a link to a picture of their setup ?

You want 2 parallel fork legs, parallel in 3 dimensions, else binding occurs.

Take out the wheel and loosen off the top triple clamp. If you remove the fork shrouds too you can then eyeball the forks from the side to get the fore and aft alignment by moving the forks back and forward. You can also get a couple of straight edges and attach them to the forks, one high and one low. I like to use aluminum angle. Eyeball these from the top.

When the fore/aft alignment is done, retorque the top triple clamp and check again.

The wheel is clamped to the LH fork leg by the axle. The distance between them when the wheel is out is what you want when its installed. There is an amount of clearance between the fork leg and wheel on the RH side.

Install wheel. When you do this the fork leg is sometimes pulled across towards the wheel, closing up the space and putting the forks legs out of parallel.

If you don't clamp the RH axle clamp until bouncing on the front suspension, then mostly this will get the forks in line. Sometimes not, and you will feel it when bouncing as a tightness, or stiction. Tapping the underside of the fork leg while bouncing can help, as can forcing the axle one way or another. This has then become a 2 person job.

Sometimes the part of the axle that is clamped gets a mark on it that wears a mating surface into the fork leg, and when this happens if the legs are out of line they can stay that way. Some dressing of the axle can fix this.

More confused?

Steve