Refitting refurbished forks and putting front wheel back in. Castle nut and washer on right hand side, fitted the axle and speedo drive and starting to tighten things up and wheel is binding. I thought I’d carefully kept everything to go back on - my question is - am I missing a spacer somewhere? Looked at cmsnl pics and I can’t see one . Any help gratefully received. Thanks
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B model front wheel installation help
- Thread starter AlanW
- Start date
There’s a small lip inside the caliper side the step in the axle has to get past. Otherwise I’d suspect the speedo drive not seated all the way in? Got any pics?
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Is it your brake caliper binding when you tighten it? Small increments until it starts binding then determine exactly where it starts to drag.
To be clear you tighten the castle nut, then tighten the LH axle clamp?
Might want to take a step back and try this.
Might want to take a step back and try this.
desmoman900
650 Society Director
There’s a spacer between the wheel bearings that gets squeezed after years of over torquing. Make sure that the bearings are properly seated and not too far in.
Problem finally solved and it was due to user error!!! Thanks to those who stopped and made me look in the right place - especially gggGary and Wingedwheel! Took the pads out of the caliper to eliminate any brake binding and put the wheel back in. Noticed the brake disk was rubbing against the caliper! Closer inspection showed the spring washers on the inside of the caliper bolt pushing it over by a few mm.!! When I took the forks out for refurb I had carefully reattached the dome nuts and spring washers onto the caliper for safe keeping and stupidly forgot to take them off when I reattached it. Dumbass!, but it’s now sorted and the bike is ready for the spring! Thanks again to this group for helping me out - all it cost was time and a little loss of dignity. 
desmoman900
650 Society Director
No loss of dignity if nobody is there to see it. lol
Mikey
got muscles in his head that ain't never been used
Good video Gary !! Thanks
I need to check the tubes on my 77
That maybe why the disc seemed to have rubbed on the caliper?
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All's not balm in Gilead for sure.
cloppydog
XS650 Member
But the bearings sit up against a ridge in the centre of the hub. Do you have any idea of what the correct speedo drive should be? I am having problems centring the wheel. The speedo drive is 30mm thick but the same year on my european 447 is 36mm, and that is fine.
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Might be the angle, @cloppydog but the black speedo drive looks like it,s maybe been cut or filed down sometime?
If it all looks to be working, I'd make some new spacers to centre the wheel. Alignment of the front brake is OK too?
I recently made new spacers for the rear wheel because the bearings were suffering preload when the nut was tightened.
The black, 30mm drive is correct. The other drive is not from an XS650 -- at least I've never seen one like it. I have no idea why a 36mm works on your 447. What year is the bike you are having trouble with, and what year is the 447?
What it should look like. The speedo drive does NOT butt up against the fork leg. It butts up against the axel head, leaving a gap (arrow) between the speedo drive and the fork leg.
cloppydog
XS650 Member
Thanks very much for your reply, found it interesting. I think I have managed to figure it out. It would appear that the 30mm drive problem has been highlighted by my mistake of fitting a set of fork stanchions from a UK spec (XS650B 1976 533 Engine number 502***). These stanchions are 30mm thick at the hub whereas it would seem that my US import(XS650B 1974/5 447 Engine number107***) has one leg at 36mm and the other is 34mm. Once everything is installed, the brake rotor is central in the calliper, the hub looks correct and I am able to torque the hub to its correct value and the wheel rotates smoothly with the disc staying central. It would appear that my biggest problem is the differences between US models and Europe model. The speedo drives are just one example, they have different part numbers, similar but different headers and different design change code. Another minor problem is the ignition switch, US has 4wires and a 3 position switch, the European has 5 wires and a 4 position switch.
I would appreciate any further comments or ideas that you may have. Thanks and have a good day.
cloppydog
XS650 Member
Just one more point, the Euro version has two discs and the axle bolt is the other way round. The axle head butts up against the spacer with the dust shield.
Euro/UK 75/76 models used the same fork set up. In 75 Yamaha wanted the Euro/UK 75B front forks to have the caliper mounted on the rear of the fork. The rest of the world, the caliper, (74-75), was mounted on the front of the fork, Yamaha in its infinite wisdom swapped the forks from side to side, reversed the axle, with the nut on the left and axle clamp on the right. This will change the width as you point out.
I would love to see a pic of the fork where the speedo stop is
Your would have noticed the caliper is mounted lower down on the forks due to using the smaller diameter brake rotor. This also changed the front guard stay length due to the mounts lower as well to miss the lower caliper.
Your Vin # is for the Euro-UK 75B
From here
https://www.xs650.com/threads/xs650...orkshop-manuals-tech-information-links.30569/
I would love to see a pic of the fork where the speedo stop is
Your would have noticed the caliper is mounted lower down on the forks due to using the smaller diameter brake rotor. This also changed the front guard stay length due to the mounts lower as well to miss the lower caliper.
Your Vin # is for the Euro-UK 75B
From here
https://www.xs650.com/threads/xs650...orkshop-manuals-tech-information-links.30569/
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