| Author | Message | ||
     Redvenger33 |
Where is the best place to order a replacement rear tire? For instance, I order my car tires online at the tirerack, but they don't do motorcycle tires. Or does the Harley dealer charge a fair price ordering a tire through them. | ||
| Gearheaderiko |
Welcome RDV33! Its unlikely the dealer will charge you a fair price.Some do, but its rare. First check around at a local independent (or even Cycle Gear) for pricing. Often you'll get just as good a price through them with mount & balance (off bike) as buying through Dennis Kirk (a good source to buy or check for fair tire prices) and paying to get them mounted. The stock Dunlops are probably the most expensive tire for the Blast and the least desirable. Pirelli's are the stickiest, but wear faster. The Avons are a good compromise (long wear, good handling) between the 3 brands that offer stock replacements. I assume you'll remove the rear wheel yourself (its very easy!) | ||
| Redvenger33 |
Thanks for the info! I've got a tire ordered and know of a local shop that will mount it for me. One more question, how easy is "very easy" when it comes to removing the wheel? Sorry for being so ignorant, I have no experience working w/ motorcycles. Do you just remove the center bolt running through the tire and then the wheel easily comes off? After the wheel is removed, do you just leave the bike on jackstands placed under the footpegs (or better location)? thanks again | ||
| Gearheaderiko |
Yes, pull out axle (center bolt), slide wheel forward slightly , unhook belt, remove wheel. To install: put wheel into bike, hook belt to inside of sprocket,put axle through wheel, torque axle nut to 48-52 ft lbs, 'walk' belt onto sprocket (ease belt onto sprocket while turning the wheel). If you still have the stock exhaust (or Pro Series) you can jack it up by that.Just leave it on the jack and a jackstand or milk crate under the foot peg while getting the tire. When replacing the wheel make sure the brake rotor goes between the brake pads (not caliper and pad). Use a little anti seize or grease (or even Vasiline) on the axle when sliding it back in (keeps it from freezing/corroding up over time). Use blue or red Loctite on axle threads. Lastly: buy a repair manual,torque wrench and socket, and blue (or red) Loctite, if you dont already have them. It will cost you the same to buy this stuff now or have the dealer replace your rear tire. This way at least you'll have stuff you can use instead of the remorse of paying the dealer big $$ to replace your tire! Anybody have anything else to add? (Message edited by gearheaderiko on May 31, 2006) | ||
| Jmynes |
I just wrassled the Avon rear tire on. The wheel on/off was the easy part. Using two tire spoons and a crowbar getting the tire off and on the wheel worked me into a pretty good lather, but I got 'er dun! I balanced the wheel/tire using a bar through the bearings and resting that on a weight bench. The V-shaped thingies on top of the bench worked slicker than snot on a doorknob. Didn't take much weight to randomize the stopping point. Took it for a check ride, no vibrations up to 75 MPH. Then I noticed all the oil. Gotta change the rocker cover gasket next. Anybody know the part number? No, officer, you may not look at my camcorder. | ||
| Swampy |
1. Don't over torque the rear axle nut. 2. Check the wheel bearings real well while you have it apart. 3. Make sure that if whoever changes out the tire, replaces the pulley attaching bolts if they have to take it off. Taking off the pulley is not necessary to change the tire. If you can, lay the tire out in the sun for a little while while you are taking the old one off to warm it up a little so it goes on easier. Rev limiters only work on the way up! | ||
| Naustin |
Yeah, the HD dealer is trying to kill me and re-used my pulley bolts - TWICE! I have to take it in for the 7,500 mile service soon and I'm going to have to point that out to them. Maybe I should buy them a Blast Shop manual so that they will have one in the future.  | ||
| Jmynes |
Having been a tank mechanic for 12 years may have skewed my thinking, but then again, if the dealer re-used your bolts twice, apparently it worked at least once. I took the pulley off to swap the tire, and saw no good reason not to re-use them. Are we re-using them just because the book says so? Maybe I better switch to Harley branded oil......... | ||
| Swampy |
I think the thought process is that some bolts that are used for attaching things are elastic and stretch when you torque them to a certain value and the bolt remains elastic to keep a constant pressure to the pieces you are attaching, once you get that bolt to that strech point it will not recover enough to be reusable. An example are head bolts used to attach aluminum heads to cast iron blocks. The aluminum and iron expand and contract at different rates and attaching bolts must remain elastic to maintain the clamping force to keep the head gasket from leaking. Another example is aluminum wheel and an iron brake rotor. As far as the wheel to the pulley goes.....shoot, I don't know...... | ||
| Gearheaderiko |
Well Swampy, you are right, they are 2 different metals. Yes it is also because the book tells us to (though I havent yet replaced them-11k+ miles). The question still is why? I also know of plenty of parts that repair manuals say to throw away, but the reason why is easy to see and its not going to cause catastrophic failure to re use them. Maybe since the first pulley was recalled (due to catastrophic failure) they are being over cautious with the replacement. Maybe its just because of the Loctite? They want to be sure its used. The bolts seem pretty hard, so I cant imagine they stretch, but maybe they fracture over time (esp with abuse)? | ||
| Swampy |
Whats the fastening proceedure for those bolts? Is it torque, then tighten an additional X degrees?. If so those would be torque to yield bolts that are considered non-reusable. | ||
| Jmynes |
Have there been any failures attributed to re-using the pulley bolts? If not, perhaps I will be the first one. I'll let you know. By the way, the welds on my Jardine exhaust are all holding up just fine, even using the solid spacers on the front mount.  | ||
| Naustin |
Well, I know there were some failures on the old pulley, and those people had very bad days. If we were talking about the bolts on the pegs or the exhaust manifold, or even the head - I wouldn't be so concerned. If I re-used them, and there was a problem, I'd just pull over and replace them. With the pulley however, I have visions of the head of 1 of the bolts fracturing and breaking off, causing the one next to it to do the same, and thus causing half the pulley to be exposed to unacceptably high stress --- total pulley failure, highside, sever injury or death, etc... Why risk it? Even if it just breaks off inside the wheel - I don't want to buy a new rear wheel. Drilling and tapping a pulley mount hole in the rear wheel really isn't a safe option either... | ||
| Jmynes |
Well, I'm just gonna keep an eye on 'em. Those bolts are stronger than the wheel they bolt into, and I put some blue Loc-TitŪ on them, so we'll see. The fact that the dealer re-uses them as a matter of course tells me there has been no emphasis put on making sure they're replaced, which would happen if failures due to re-use became a trend. | ||
| Bhawk |
Call me a wuss but I've been runnin the same pulley bolts after a tire change for about 3500 with no noticable deviation in performance,But at about 65 MPH ............. | ||
| Gearheaderiko |
65mph... what? Sounds like bad tire balance? Pulley came apart? ...? I've also re-used pulley bolts, with no ill effect, so far. | ||
| Toniportray |
Maybe I'm an idiot, but for the life of me, I cannot get the rear axle out.. The bike is lifted off the ground on jacks and the nuts and washers are off, but I can't pull the axle out the left end.. Any help with this one? I've even tried hitting it with a hammer on the threaded end (with wood block), but it won't budge... Am I missing something!? Anyone know why the axle is stuck in? I hope this forum is still alive and well... | ||
| Toniportray |
Okay. After a lot of pounding and greasing, the problem has been solved. The axle was frozen from years of abuse. The motorcycle was actually recently recovered from theft which occured only after 3 months of me owning the bike. Grr... Happened at 2am in the morning at work. Anyway, I'll spare those details. A warrant is out, but I don't have any hope for restitution.. It's been a huge project to get my first bike back together. As such, it's certain that the frozen axle was resultant of years of abuse it went from whoever this prick is. After pounding on the axle (threaded end) for nearly 3 hours (in 30 minute increments) and constantly adding Valvoline penetrating lubricant, I've got the axle out. Casualty report: I shredded at least a dozen blocks of wood from all the hammering (firewood for next winter), as well as busted up a drill bit (which was the only thing I had that would fit into the axle hole as I tried prying it to rotate it. Guess those Dewalts aren't as tough as they say.. Anyone know what sort of lubricants I can use to grease the axle when I reinstall this new tire? This Valvoline penetrating lubricant is pretty thick, but I don't know if it qualifies as an anti-seize lubricant. Until tomorrow when I can take it to a shop to get the new tire on, I think I'm gonna settle down with a Hungry Man 'cause I'm starving after all this hammer pounding. I just knew it had to be something like a sticky axle because I knew it couldn't have been more complex than just taking off the nut and washers. Just curious: Is it difficult to remove a tire from a rim by oneself with basic bench tools, or do you really need all that fancy machinework to get the tire on/off and balanced? I'm always lookin' for ways to save money on motorcycle maintainence costs by doing things myself. | ||
| Swampy |
Welcome to the Badweb Toniportray! First, it is common to find corrosion on the axle shaft and wheel bearings from moisture getting in from pressure washing and just because... So dont use a pressure washer to clean your axle area. Before you put things back together, clean the axle shaft, remove the rust and corrosion. Then test fit the axle on the axle spacers, brake caliper mount, and finally in the wheel itself. The axle shaft has a slight taper and gets larger where the wheel bearings ride for a closer fit to the axle. Then check your wheel bearings. They need to spin smoothly, they may have a slight drag but you should be able to spin them with your finger. Pay close attention to the sprocket side wheel bearing, making sure the bearing outer race is tight in the hub. If all the prefitting goes well you should not have any problem putting it all back together. Now coat your axle with antisieze and slide it all together, but don't get any on the threads! Make sure you torque your axle only to the 48-52 ft. lbs. or you will damage the wheel bearings. I personally change and balance all my own tires. I only do it because I am very impatient and can't stand to take things to other people to do it, and I have three bikes I have to put tires on so I would be bankrupt from all the tires I put on last year alone. This year hasn't been so bad so far. Gee, California, the land of year long riding.... | ||
| Slowhand96 |
Toniportray Get yourself a lead hammer, it's soft and heavy you can smack the heck out of the end of a axle with it and you will not hurt the threads or mushroom the end of the axle. Lead hammers RULE!!! You can also get a brass drift at most hardware stores. Brass is soft won't hurt the axle either. I ditto Swampy's thoughts of slathering neverseize on it. I didn't know about not putting it on the threads, I've always done that deliberately??? Maybe it effects torque? Swampy, why is that bad? | ||
| Swampy |
I'm kind of scary when it comes to my nuts......LOL I am concerned about those things staying put, the torque seemes low for that diameter nut, and I'm not worried about rust on the threads. | ||
| Slowhand96 |
Is there room on the axle threads sticking out for a jamb nut? I'm glad you didn't have a scary story about neversieze for me. Living in Minnesota I slather it on everything that has to come apart some day. ESPECIALLY lug nuts on the jeep. Thinking about it that is an awfully low torque. I think the 1/2.. or 7/16 nuts on the jeep are about 80 ft/lbs. | ||
| Gearheaderiko |
About 50ftlbs is fairly standard HD rear axle nut torque. Manual says use Loctite. Never had one come loose (and they're race tested!). Drill the tiny holes and safety wire it. Then it shouldnt come loose and you'll have any easy way to tell if it is. | ||
| Slowhand96 |
Thinking about it.. I didn't put never-seize on my axle threads, I wouldn't have if the manual said to put loctite on the threads, the two don't mix well. And even though the manual has it's weak points, I generally follow it or at least use it as a guide. I'm pretty sure I put it on the shoulder of the shaft though. | ||
| Slowhand96 |
Erik I never got the science of safety wire. Do you drill through the nut and bolt and run it through like a cotter pin? I saw some old WWII airplanes at the Confederate Air Force museum and it looked like the holes were just under the surface and generally went parallel or tangent to the rotation but didn't intersect it????? | ||
| Gearheaderiko |
Simply put - drill a hole in just the nut then a hole in the frame and connect the 2 with wire. There are many variations, some quite complex, but once you do a few (especially if you see it done right) you get the hang of it! Cotter pin style is one way. I tried cotter pinning the Blast axle nuts, but without a castle nut and using different wheels all the time, it didnt work out well. | ||
| Toniportray |
Tire replacement phase 2: Well I've got the wheel off now, and it's been over a week since the tire shop told me thier tire machine is broken so that's just one issue to work through. However, the more severe problem is that I can't get the drive belt sprocket off of the back wheel rim. The tire won't fit in the tire machine unless I get that huge round sprocket off the wheel. Worst part is, I can't. Those Torx 40 screws are in so tight I just stripped one of the screws, and that was through the use of a high torque power drill/driver. They won't come out. I don't have an impact driver but am hoping to borrow one. I think my torx fittings are crap, so I need to buy stronger bits. Anyone know a place to buy strong, automotive strength Torx 40 bits? Also, how do I get these screws out? It's the first time they've been removed since the bike was bought, so that Locktite stuff probably isn't helping the ease. Help! I can't get the tire changed until I get these out.. | ||
| Ezblast |
Heat - use a soldering iron - low setting - about 30 secs - to burn off the locktite. GT - JBOTDS! EZ  | ||
| Swampy |
Do it by hand! You will need to replace the bolts if you reuse them. The tire is very easy to change by hand with tire irons. Just work with the pulley side down, as the brake rotor will give you clearance to work the tire on with tire irons. I'm telling you guys again, bring it to me and I will teach you how to do it yourself! But yes if you absolutly have to take it some where and they make you remove the pulley, the trick to removing those pesky bolts is to use heat, you need to get the bolts up to probably 250-300 degrees to get the loctite loose. (Message edited by swampy on July 10, 2007) (Message edited by swampy on July 10, 2007) | ||
| Gearheaderiko |
Concur! And dont use any power tools on the bolts. It just makes stripping them faster! Impact driver would be a good idea if you can find the impact torx bits. NAPA auto parts (or a professional auto parts store)should have good torx bits (unless you can find a Snap-on, Mac or Matco tool dealer). The cheaper places (Pep Boys, Autozone, Chief,etc) may have good bits but arent a good bet. Its also a good idea to buy a thread chaser (tap) and clean out the threads before reinstalling. I've never had to use heat and I've reused the bolts. If you do have to heat them up, I'd get new bolts though. (or order them and replace ASAP). |
