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1999 softail standard front wheel alignment, spacers, disc etc!

SE6A

Active Member
My Softail standard was fitted with a cast 'fatboy' style front wheel sometime in its life and I recent located a used 21inch wheel to take it back to standard.
the cast wheel had a grooved spacer on the left side and two spacers on the right (disc ) side.
slotting the wheel into place tonight, I found I needed to swap the grooved spacer to the disc side, and just one of the shorter ones to the other side.
the fatboy wheel had a recess with a seal, and one of the original spacers fitted into this to almost a third of its depth.
I did line up the wheel with no spacers, and applied the front brake to bring the wheel central, measuring up the spacers.
however tightening up the axle with spacers in place the disc seems to be binding in the caliper.
but I can turn it by hand fairly easily.
now these pads have been used all their life with the disc on the FB wheel, should I be looking to replace the pads to ensure the bed in with the other disc, or will a few miles down the road get things moving?
 
There should be a short spacer either side that goes through the seal and seats on the bearing so you need to get spacers of the correct size then to fill in the rest of the space
it may be that it is the bearings that are seizing when everything is tight
there should be a spacer between the 2 bearings and on the disc side there should be some shims thin washers filling in the space once these are correct there should be a wee bit of float on the wheel as in 0.05 to 0.15 mm
Just buying a wheel and fitting it does not work with the tapered bearings as they have to be setup correctly otherwise they will bind when everything is tightened or flop about a bit

Brian
 
I don't know how much difference it makes, but I think all single disc Harleys are mounted on the Left leg. That could account for spacer differences. And if it's tapered bearings, Fins advice is important.
 
With your axle tight, and spacers in place, remove the caliper and spin the tire. It should spin freely with no binding. If you have binding then Brian has you covered. If it is free the you need to spacer you caliper or rotor so the are centered. You can get thin spacers for either of them. What year is your Softail?
tourbox

With your year I can look up lengths, L & R, because they change from '99 to '06, That was doing a random search. I.E. '99 r/h front was 1.250", but in '07 it was .893". Different axle diameters also.
tourbox
 
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Parts list for 99 softails shows the thin spacers used to set the wheel end float so I think it is a tapered bearing model however the replacement wheel may be from a later model and have a different bearing setup and so would require different spacer setup

Brian
 
Parts list for 99 softails shows the thin spacers used to set the wheel end float so I think it is a tapered bearing model however the replacement wheel may be from a later model and have a different bearing setup and so would require different spacer setup

Brian
thanks Brian, I took the caliper off and torqued up the wheel with a spacer each side, wider one on the disc side and the other on the opposite side, the wheel spun freely.
the wheel is off a slightly later model I believe, its all a learning curve!
bike off the road for now as having a new mudguard to suit painted.
 
You might need a few washers in the right place to adjust the position of the calliper or some new wheel spacers to get the wheel in the correct position to get the calliper in the correct position

Brian
 
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