Author Topic: Rear wheel offset (Read 4204 times)

eurban · « **on:** March 05, 2006, 07:22:42 PM »

So as I have mentioned in my postings on wheel alignment, I have discovered that the rear wheel on my 78 750K is not centered on the swingarm or the frame. Measurements indicate that it is shifted to the right by about 1/8th of an inch This means that when you actually measure from the hub/tire etc to the swingarm/frame/shock shaft etc the left side measurements are about a 1/4 larger than the right side. The wheel is true and the rim is centered over the hub's spoke mounting ribs. Can anyone out there confirm that their 750s rear wheels are actually centered or are they offset? Particularly those with with a 77/78 K model? To the best of my knowledge the spacers on my bike are stock and correctly installed. Thanks

seaweb11 · « **Reply #1 on:** March 05, 2006, 08:23:48 PM »

Take a pict of the rear, and I can have a boo at mine and comapre.

eurban · « **Reply #2 on:** March 06, 2006, 05:44:09 AM »

For what they are worth, here are a couple of shots of the left and right spacers. They could be the wrong pieces but I strongly doubt it.

dusterdude · « **Reply #3 on:** March 06, 2006, 06:03:00 AM »

eric,as i mentioned in your previous post,my rear tire is offset to the left a bit.

eurban · « **Reply #4 on:** March 06, 2006, 01:56:10 PM »

Mark- Thanks for the info

. . . .Anyone with 77/78K willing to measure?

Bob Wessner · « **Reply #5 on:** March 06, 2006, 02:02:31 PM »

OK, having a little trouble following this one as well as another about wheel alignment (may need more of that Geritol

). Is the rear wheel on the 750 supposed to be offset? If so, which way/how much? If so, you really can't align front to rear, more like make sure they're parallel??

Signed: Confused.

damn_yankee · « **Reply #6 on:** March 06, 2006, 03:06:16 PM »

The spacers looks correct. The rear tire should be in line with the front tire. If you are looking at the swingarm only it may appear to be offset because it may not be centered within the two arms. I can check my K8 tonight. There are a few posts on checking the tire alignment.

jaknight · « **Reply #7 on:** March 06, 2006, 06:13:15 PM »

HOLD ON...... STOP THE MUSIC...... STOP THE MUSIC

I have a 750 '74 K4..........

From the photos you posted eurban, the axle set up on the rear wheel of my sweeheart is the reverse of what your photos show.

If I undo the axle, and reverse it (change left side so that it is on the right side------make it look as it does in your photos) the retaining nut will not clear the factory standard exhaust pipes. The pipes appear undamaged and straight, no unwanted bends or contours. My setup MUST be installed from the side opposite the direction of yours.

Anybody have any enlightening knowledge about this?
~ ~ ~ jaknight ~ ~ ~

eurban · « **Reply #8 on:** March 06, 2006, 07:31:05 PM »

Quote from: Bob Wessner on March 06, 2006, 02:02:31 PM

OK, having a little trouble following this one as well as another about wheel alignment (may need more of that Geritol ). Is the rear wheel on the 750 supposed to be offset? If so, which way/how much? If so, you really can't align front to rear, more like make sure they're parallel??

Signed: Confused.

Well this is pretty much what I am trying to figure out Bob. Did Honda intend it to be this way or do I have something wrong. If Honda built it this way then why? I would think that purely from a handling stand point that the wheel centerlines should be the same rather than off set?

??

Quote from: damn_yankee on March 06, 2006, 03:06:16 PM

The spacers looks correct. The rear tire should be in line with the front tire. If you are looking at the swingarm only it may appear to be offset because it may not be centered within the two arms. I can check my K8 tonight. There are a few posts on checking the tire alignment.

Yankee- Well I measured my rear wheel off set in a number of ways including referencing off rear of the swing arm "forks", the lower shock mounts, the upper shock mounts which are part of the frame etc etc and I pretty much get a consistent offset of 1/8' to the right. It is not a matter of things "appearing" off center, the wheel is not centered in the rear of the chasis. With my Gl front end I actually have a 1/16th offset in the opposite left direction which would seem to compound the issue. Overall I noticed some head shake in the bike prior to being put down for the winter and that when going straight ahead, the handlebars weren't quite straight. I have also discovered that when my alignment marks are set even that the rear wheel is aimed about a 1/4 to the right of the centerline of the headstock which would mean in my case that it is pointing around 5/16" to the right of the front wheel centerline. This is probably why the handlebars weren't straight. (rear of the bike wants to swing out to the Rt so the handlebar is turned to the rt to compensate . . .not good) If I leave the offsets alone and simply point my rear wheel at the front wheel (in my case about 1/16 to the left of the headstock centerline) then I think I end up with with handlebar off angle again when the bike is going straight ahead. . . . .Anyways if you could measure your K8 I would be much obliged. . . .

Jaknight-I'm not that familiar with the older 750s so I for one don't know whether your setup is stock/correct or not.

damn_yankee · « **Reply #9 on:** March 06, 2006, 08:36:10 PM »

I checked the rear wheel on my K8 and the right side is the same (correct), but it looks like the left side on my bike has one more spacer than you do...

You might want to measure the inside dimension on the swing arm and I'll check mine.

I need to clean my bike.

Good Luck.

HondaMan · « **Reply #10 on:** March 06, 2006, 08:36:27 PM »

Quote from: jaknight on March 06, 2006, 06:13:15 PM

HOLD ON...... STOP THE MUSIC...... STOP THE MUSIC

I have a 750 '74 K4..........

From the photos you posted eurban, the axle set up on the rear wheel of my sweeheart is the reverse of what your photos show.

If I undo the axle, and reverse it (change left side so that it is on the right side------make it look as it does in your photos) the retaining nut will not clear the factory standard exhaust pipes. The pipes appear undamaged and straight, no unwanted bends or contours. My setup MUST be installed from the side opposite the direction of yours.

Anybody have any enlightening knowledge about this?
~ ~ ~ jaknight ~ ~ ~

Easy, there, Knight Rider! The 77/78K was reversed from the earlier K because of the pipes. Yours is OK.

jaknight · « **Reply #11 on:** March 06, 2006, 08:41:27 PM »

THANK YOU HondaMan,

I feel much better now...... I can sleep tonight (If I can stop thinking about Raquel Welch from an earlier posting).

~ ~ ~ jaknight ~ ~ ~

seaweb11 · « **Reply #12 on:** March 07, 2006, 11:17:32 AM »

Here is my K8 Rear set up

dusterdude · « **Reply #13 on:** March 07, 2006, 01:37:29 PM »

my k1 is like erics,im guessing that the spacers are correct because the rear wheel is a #$%* to get into the swing arm,as far as fitting between the arms of the swing arm.

eurban · « **Reply #14 on:** March 07, 2006, 05:50:44 PM »

These are not super precise measurements . . . . . . . .Center of left chain tensioning bolt head to center of right chain tensioning bolt head (these are the bolts that shoot straight back that you turn to pull your axle rearwards) is 10 3/4" This is with the spacers in place as shown in PIcs and with the axel nut torqued. The left side spacer is just about dead on 1" (I have an extra one off the bike that I am pretty sure is the same size as the one installed) and when installed about 7/16 of an inch is exposed. The right side hourglass shaped spacer is about 1 3/8 inches long. Again, when I measure from various points on the rear wheel to reference points on the swing arm, frame and shock shafts I consistently get 1/4" larger measurements on the left side than the right side which equates to the wheel being 1/8" off center shifted to the right. Can you K8 guys measure for this?? Yankee your setup looks pretty different on the left side. Do you have any reason to believe that it is not stock? Also, it could be my imagination but your right hourglass spacer kind of looks smaller than the one of my bike. Is it about 1 3/8 long? Seaweb, your setup seems to be like my bike's arangement. Mark, what size are the spacers on your earlier bike? Your wheel is shifted closer to the left, right

? Thanks again all

dusterdude · « **Reply #15 on:** March 08, 2006, 07:52:41 AM »

eric,yes its to the left,as far as the spacers go ill have to remember to measure them this weekend.

damn_yankee · « **Reply #16 on:** March 08, 2006, 03:54:43 PM »

I'll measure the hourglass spacer and distance between forks this weekend. My rear wheel is about (roughly) 1" offset to the right. I don't know the history of my bike or why it is that different from yours or the other K8 pics, but I believe the rear tire is now inline with the center line of the bike.

eurban · « **Reply #17 on:** March 08, 2006, 04:46:18 PM »

Yankee- Not sure what you mean by your bike being offset to the right by 1" and that it is now centered with the rear of the bike?

When I have been speaking of offset I have meant offset from the centerline of the swingarm and frame (the centerline between the upper shock mounts on the frame and the centerline between the swingarm forks are the same). What are measuring as 1"? Thanks.

eurban · « **Reply #18 on:** March 09, 2006, 07:05:42 PM »

In a moment of clarity I think I have found the explanation for why my rear wheel is shifted 1/8" off center (to the right) in the rear swing arm when installed with what I am pretty sure are the stock spacers. It would appear that the swing arm forks, the lower shock mounts and the upper shock mounts (on the frame) are all shifted to the left by aprox 1/8'" from the chasis centerline. This becomes fairly obvious if you run a string line from the center of the headstock back along the center backbone and out the back of the bike (see attached Pic . Honda then shifted the rear wheel 1/8" to the right of the swingarm centerline to bring the wheel back into the center of the bike's chasis. I am not quite sure why it was necessary for Honda to do this shift (perhaps for packaging all the parts or for chain clearance etc) but it seems that I was foolish to doubt their work and also to have enough confidence in the meaning of my earlier measurements that I spent a few hours milling a shortened left spacer (I had an extra) and a thin secondary rt hand spacer. My installed handiwork can be seen in the Pic as the rear wheel is obviously too far to the left, although it is now perfectly centered in the swing arm.

. . . . . . . .
So Yankee you were right when you told me that my rear wheel only appeared to be off center! Thanks. . . .However, I would take a closer look at your rear wheel spacing because if you are running a stock 78 frame, swingarm, and rear wheel with that extra spacer on the left then you probably aren't centered up. Maybe you have an earlier wheel?
Well now that I am done chasing wild geese, all I have to do is put back in the stock spacers and then set up the straight edges or stringlines and point my rear wheel properly at my front wheel. . . .

damn_yankee · « **Reply #19 on:** March 15, 2006, 08:57:10 AM »

eurban,

I finally got around to measuring a few things. Been real busy.
The center to center on the two adjuster bolts is 10 3/4" - just like yours, but...
the hourglass shaped spacer on my bike is 1 3/32" long not 1 3/8" like yours.
That's a little more than a 1/4" difference so that's why the spacer on the left side of my bike is longer.

I'm not sure why the difference - maybe someone can enlighten us!
Honda may have had tolerances to deal with on the hub and spoke setup but I'm only guessing.

Regards,

Jeff

eurban · « **Reply #20 on:** March 16, 2006, 05:32:48 AM »

Jeff- Thanks for checking things out. On my 78 frame, the left shock's top eye sits about 1/4" farther from the left frame rail than the right shock's eye sits from the right frame rail. This is part of the shift (rear swing arm and shock mounts shifted to left 1/8 and the rear wheel then shifted back to the right 1/8) that Honda engineered into my bike. This should be easy to see wih the seat lifted up so check and see if your frame is the same as mine. Also, as you mentioned, your hub might be different (are you confident that you have stock parts?) The reality check would be to run the string line from the headstock and down along the backbone of the bike to show you if your wheel is centered on the main frame but this requires at least removing the tank and and I found it was best to have the seat, fender and inner fender removed as well. . . . .Best as I can figure, if your swingarm/shocks are shifted to the left like mine then either your rear wheel is not centered on the frame or your hub is different.

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Author Topic: Rear wheel offset (Read 4204 times)

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