Rear axle alignment

[Seaking]

Insomnia sucks..

 

I was reading through a lot of the tech service tips for upcoming work (clutch, lubes etc), I'm the 3rd owner of my 2006 Midnight and I'm discovering much to my chagrin that the previous two owners most likely didn't get much servicing done to this bike.. So I'm going through everything with a fine tooth comb again, now that I know more about this bike.. I bought it with 20,000 miles on it, and I just turned shy of 46,000 miles on it when I got home from visiting Skydoc (leaving his house with 44,000 exactly on the clock Needless to say I'm getting my money's worth out of this bike..

 

I came across the articles about fixing various noises from dry clutch hub drive pins..

 

[ame=http://www.venturerider.org/forum/showthread.php?t=1705]Rear End Noise - Yamaha TSB - VentureRider.Org[/ame]

 

In this article, the tech alert describes how to dry fit the rear axle (minus wheel) to ensure proper alignment. If the axle binds or is difficult, they say to undo the 4 acorn nuts that attaches the final drive to the swing arm, then, aligning it to permit sliding the axle freely etc etc..

 

They don't mention what is used to align the final drive? What kind of shim is used then? I'm missing the point on this one here how re-tightening the acorn nuts will cause a proper alignment to happen?

 

Can anyone clarify this? Specifically, what do you do if you slide the axle in and it binds?

 

Thanks in advance.

[skydoc_17]

Hey Seaking,

I have the answer for this one! I recently had to shim the FJR1300 Final Drive I installed in my First Gen. 87'VR. With the acorn bolts removed, you install the axle bolt. The Final Drive should be pretty much flush to the drive shaft housing, if it is NOT then a measurement is taken with feeler gauges (I actually used gauge blocks). I then machined a "shim" the same thickness as the gap and installed it BEFORE tightening the acorn bolts. I have included two pics of the shim and it's location. (marked with red arrow). Don't forget to put the Moly60 on those splines!

Hope this helps,

Earl

[royalstarjac]

When I am reinstalling my rear wheel I loosen the four acorn nuts, then insert the axle thru the swingarm and rear hub. Then I tighten and torque the rear axle and pinch bolts. Finally I tighten the four acorn nuts on the driveshaft housing side of the swingarm. This keeps any slight misalignment at the driveshaft housing side from causing a misalignment in the rear axle.