Was replacing the fork oil and had the front wheel off. After getting new fork oil in the fork, I was trying to put the front wheel back on.

No matter how hard I tried ramming the axle into with a hammer, the end face of the axle will not flush with the fork bracket. It was originally flushed before I removed the front wheel.

The front wheel is now closer to the left brake caliper than the right, some sort of an unbalanced. The axle has about 3mm protruding.

was trying to figure what I do wrong. I even swap the side collars from the left to right. This works slightly better, before that, the axle was protruding 5-6mm and the brake disc is so close to the fender. I'm sure the collars are in the wrong position now, right collar on left side and left collar on the right side but hell.. it works better on centering the wheel than the other way around.

I'm worried about the safety with this setup.

Any advice? Did I not hammer the axle hard enough to make it flush?

Thanks.

 

This might be obvious but you do have the pinch bolts on the bottom of the fork loose right? If they are not loose you probably won't get proper line up.

 

make sure u loosed all ur pinch bolts all 4 on both forks... then u gotta first get the axle through the right fork then push it back out and line ur left fork up and tap it through but u gotta make sure it can slide into the right fork all the way as well...make sure ur fork is up as high as it should be too

 

Hi BUUBH,

All the 4 pinch bolts are completely loose.

 

Hi zoniebutt,

Thanks for the tips.

The axle is somehow stuck at 2-3mm protruding from the right fork (if you facing the bike directly looking into the head light) with or without wheel in between.

More bad news, whilst I swap the spacer collars back to the correct position, I tried hammering the axle hoping to get it flush with the right fork. (My fender is brushing against the floating pins on the brake disc carrier).

I missed on one hammering strike and hit the brake disc. now the disc is bent and causing brake seizure.

The fork replacement is a breeze.. but the wheel re-installation has turn into a nightmare!!

I wonder how much a replacement brake disc will cost. I just couldn't figure out why the axle just refused to bulge leaving 2-3mm protruding. Makes no sense as it was flushing before I took the wheels off. How did the tyre shop did it when I got new tyres fitting about 4 months ago?

I'll calling a tow truck to get the bike to the shop and hopefully the mechanics at the shop can get it fixed and come up with a reason why the axle got stuck.

 

Does it matter any if you install the axle from the other side?

 

Have you made sure that the forks are even vertically?? I had a similar problem getting my axel back in last time on a tire swap. It turned out that one for was compressed more than the other. After i played with the handle bars and my front stand, I got it to work just fine. You shouldn't ever have to hammer in the axel that hard.

 

Hi BigMike,

You are right, the left fork wasn't vertical. I had to to learn this the hard way.

The bike is with a mechanic now and he got the axle to line up in a snap. He had a good laugh at my amateurish mechanic skills.

I've now got the disc bent because of a hammer blow and I'm worried that the fork seal will be damaged as the fork were slightly bent for 2 days standing still.. no riding.

Thanks,

 

Yeah, I found this out too the hard way. I did hammer on it a little too. :S However I was using a RUBBER mallet. I would think that the seal should be alright. Just inspect it for leaks, but it probably wasn't compressed that much. It wouldn't take much to make it out of alignment for your axle. Glad you at least solved the problem. Now you just have to find a new rotor.

 

My mechanic recommends to send the disc to a pressing machine to get it straightened out.

The cost of pressing and straightening is 1/5 that of a new disc.

The repaired disc was re-installed. There is still some light binding of the brakes when you try to move the bike around with the engine turned off.

I was told to ride it for some miles and see if the binding goes away. If it doesn't go away with the next 600 - 1000miles, I might need to get a new disc.

Any one knows how long can the stock Denso iridium plug last? I've got mine replaced at 22600km and all 4 plugs looks fine. I've got new NGKs iridium in.