Rear Wheel/Brake Alignment

AltaNorton · Jul 20, 2012

Well today after a lot of hours spent doing very little productive work I got the rear wheel fully installed on my '72 combat. Unfortunately after sanding down the cush drive rubbers a bit and playing around with some stuff there are still some problems. First off the sprocket/brake drum does not spin true, it has a substantial wobble in it but the rim itself spins true. Id assume this is because one of the three cush drive pins from the sprocket is not seated correctly throwing it out of true. But what stumps me more is the fact that the left side shock mounting nut is touching the brake plate. I cant see how there is anything that would be creating this. The only option I can think of is to add a spacer between the swing arm and the brake plate, to give extra clearance. Is there supposed to be one there to begin with? the parts book doesnt have one. I should have taken a picture for you guys, i will tomorrow if I cant get it figured out. Any help with these problems is appreciated. She's getting close, I can almost smell it.

Thanks,
Matt

bwolfie · Jul 21, 2012

Turn the shock bolt around, the nuts go on the outside.

rvich · Jul 21, 2012

Not only do the nuts go on the outside, but usually that bolt also retains the chain guard and the head of the bolt is appropriately thinned to fit into the chain guard bracket. As for the sprocket not aligning, I would be tempted to take the cush rubbers out and assembly everything to make sure that there isn't something goofy with the rear axle assembly. Without the rubbers everything should line up fine, inspect the paddles to make sure they are not loose or bent.

Russ

AltaNorton · Jul 21, 2012

bwolfie said:
Turn the shock bolt around, the nuts go on the outside.

Damn!!

rvich said:
Not only do the nuts go on the outside, but usually that bolt also retains the chain guard and the head of the bolt is appropriately thinned to fit into the chain guard bracket. As for the sprocket not aligning, I would be tempted to take the cush rubbers out and assembly everything to make sure that there isn't something goofy with the rear axle assembly. Without the rubbers everything should line up fine, inspect the paddles to make sure they are not loose or bent.

Russ

I will take the rubbers out again. I will sand them a bit more because i had to pound the sprocket to get it in anyways. It should be snug but id assume I dont have to hammer it in.

rvich · Jul 21, 2012

Should be able to just press it in by hand. Others will likely have an opinion but I have a hard time seeing as how a tiny bit loose could hurt. Only if it had so much slop that it caused a snapping motion when power was applied. I would be tempted to get it all pushed together as a unit, making sure the paddles are all at depth, get it into the bike as a unit and leave it for further mods after it has been ridden a bit. As the rubbers are likely to form to the paddles some. I have never put in new ones...so I am basing this on what I see on my old ones.

AltaNorton · Jul 22, 2012

Got the cush drive working good and everything fixed right...until of course I tried to put the chain guard on. The chain guard is very close to touching the left side of the chain and it does touch the brake plate. If I put a washer in between as a shim i find that the nut only screws half way (at best) onto the bolt for the lower shock mount and the chain guard then touches the shock. I know that lots of guys have problems with the chain guard fitment, any suggestions? do I need to slightly bend the chain guard?

I can get a pic next time I go to work on it if I dont get it fixed

Matt

Hobot · Jul 22, 2012

Shock bolts go in with thinnest part facing inward, on mine that means a thinner head side of bolt with end sticking out to get thick nut on.

Cushions should be hand fitted so same amount sticks proud of the hub face, like 1/16-1/8" going by how well your hub seats to the drum. Goal is a bit of even tripod crush down or metal to metal faces to shear on a bit in use. I glue in pads to help on future handling and mostly works out that way. Check you paddles are tight and not twisted.

On a down note I had a condition in Peel develop on 1000 mile rally trip where the rim=tyre seemed to spin true but could see a wobble in the hub at the chain side, which mystified me no end till taken apart at rally to find the bearing balls crumbling out.

AltaNorton · Jul 22, 2012

hobot said:
Shock bolts go in with thinnest part facing inward, on mine that means a thinner head side of bolt with end sticking out to get thick nut on.

Unfortunately thats how I have it but the chain guard still doesn't want to fit

Matt

1up3down · Jul 22, 2012

I have had to bend a little bit of the chain guard away so no contact

used a pliers and cloth and patience, can still see where I had to bend but just barely

these damn things seem to always involve some shade tree engineering on our part

DogT · Jul 22, 2012

That's always a tight area matt. Make sure you have a thin headed bolt under the chainguard holder, even if you have to make one. Crush the chainguard against the top of that thin bolt. As you can see when I did mine, I had to add a washer under the lower shock so the shock didn't rub on the chainguard. It can be done.

Dave
69S

Hobot · Jul 22, 2012

And I thought I was the only one to have to massage chain guard fitting for silent rolling when nothing crash damaged. Both the chain guards that came on my 2 Combats were chain damaged both by heat and impact texturing. I have not yet over come a resistance to spend on a new one so rattle can grey covering the rusted and missing chrome layer. SS replacements have 1/2 thickness bolt heads, but factory ones should work out in the end.

Guido · Jul 22, 2012

I will take the rubbers out again. I will sand them a bit more because i had to pound the sprocket to get it in anyways. It should be snug but id assume I dont have to hammer it in.[/quote said:
My pops always said, "If you need a hammer to put parts together, you're doing it wrong."

The buffers should be tight and upon initial clamp down and should form into the paddles. It can just be a bear at first but once it's in and ran it will be fine.
At least that has been my experience.

And that chain guard deal, it happens.
Shock nut on the outside and master link clip to the inside and maybe a little tweaking to boot on the guard.

Rear Wheel/Brake Alignment

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