500 rear wheel position looks off center ?

[McCabe-Thiele (Ted)]

Although there is only my frame on the bike stand with the rear wheel in place without the rear drive gear fitted or any brake shoes in the hub the rear wheel sits well off the center line with the two chain adjuster roughly at the same mark.

Am I right in thinking that there is more clearance between the wheel rim & the rear swing arm to allow for the drive chain?

The line from the center of the tyre tread is to the right of the center line of the top of the frame where the mudguard bolts. It looks to be a good half an inch to the right.  This difference is also reflected in the distance between the dampers & the tyre edges.

I'm a bit stumped the rear wheel is a 185 x19 that was on the bike I have fitted SS rear spacers that are the same length as the ones that came off.

Amended since original post rims are 185 x 18.

[Johnwebley]

Can't really think of an offset

But it should be an 18 inch rim,


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[McCabe-Thiele (Ted)]

Can't really think of an offset

But it should be an 18 inch rim,


Sent from my SM-A750FN using Tapatalk

I'll double check the rim is rusty I know one is 18" & one is 19" from memory.
I believe that there were different sized spacers on various 500' s
Update
It is 18" I've just checked the front is 19".

[McCabe-Thiele (Ted)]

As a result of some new information it looks as if my bike has different sized rear spacers fitted compared to most 500's
My brake side spacer is 37.5 mm the left side is approx 37.9/38 on the left side.

[Oddjob]

I gave Max the dimensions of my 500 rear wheel spacers Ted when he was making me some in stainless, maybe heck and see what I said they were. Maybe the rear wheel is a 550 one which is different spacer wise. The brake plate is also different so that will show if it's a 550 rear wheel or a 500. They look the same visually.

[Bryanj]

I will be honest and say i picked a wheel with good drum and usable rim from my pile of wheels when i assembled that bike so apart from the fact the brake plate fits the wheel i dont know what it came off, i think it was one of the relined drums i had done

[McCabe-Thiele (Ted)]

I gave Max the dimensions of my 500 rear wheel spacers Ted when he was making me some in stainless, maybe heck and see what I said they were. Maybe the rear wheel is a 550 one which is different spacer wise. The brake plate is also different so that will show if it's a 550 rear wheel or a 500. They look the same visually.

If it is a 550 rear wheel it's well off central with the spacers. I bought a 500 brake plate due to the original being damaged. Is there a measurement I can take the will confirm if it's a 500 hub?

At the present time the original brake plate is still in place.

[Oddjob]

Ted a 550 wheel will drop straight into a 500 frame, so long as you use all the hardware. However what you can't do is mix and match, a 500 brake plate won't fit a 550 hub IIRC due to slight differences in the hub, the left hand spacer is different as well, the right hand one even more markedly different. Post a pic of the spacers and we may be able to clarify what the wheels off.

[amx1992]

I believe the spacers currently fitted on Teds are 42313292000 and
42311390000

[McCabe-Thiele (Ted)]

I will be honest and say i picked a wheel with good drum and usable rim from my pile of wheels when i assembled that bike so apart from the fact the brake plate fits the wheel i dont know what it came off, i think it was one of the relined drums i had done

Do you know if the "pile of wheels" were  all 500 ones?
Would the relevant axle & spacers have been attached to the corresponding wheel?

I would have thought there must be some way of identifying a 500 hub presumably a measurement of its axial width?

FWIW I believe it is a 500 hub with the wrong spacers fitted in place.

[McCabe-Thiele (Ted)]

I have made a reasonably accurate measurement of the distance between the brake end plate face & the outside of the bearing on the sprocket side - it works out at 157 mm +/- 1 mm. I measured this with a steel tape through the center where the axle shaft fits. The only marks are casting marks of E-7 & E1   /3.

So adding my spacers as follows from left to right its 37.5 +157 + 38.0 mm a total of 232.5 between the chain adjuster faces.

I believe most 500's have spacers  from left to right spacers of 32.0 & 45 mm that would shift my wheel possibly  some 7mm to the left - either way there is a difference of an extra 1.5 mm of spacer width - at present the rear wheel has quite a bit of clamping space to take up that would be reduced due to the extra 1.5 mm of space occupied by the collars.

The 500, 550F & 550F2 all appear to have the same hub part number 42601-323-030.

[mickwinf]

Ted the 500 and 550 were all the same hub up to the K3/f2 which were slightly different. If you look at the ribs in the centre of the hub between the spokes, early ones have all the ribs equal hight but the later one has one rib higher, i think somewhere on the sight is a pic of the two types. I will try to measure them but at  work today

[McCabe-Thiele (Ted)]

Thanks Mick my hub has all four ribs the same - if you have a removed wheel a measurement would be re-assuring.

[Oddjob]

It's the other way round Mick, the later hubs have one rib much lower, 3 ribs of equal height and the one on the bearing retainer side sits much lower.

I know the F2/K3 brake plate doesn't fit the 500 hub as I tried it many years ago, I seem to recall it has a flange on the outside of it that rubs against the rim of the hub.

I'm wondering why the 550 uses a different spacer on the sprocket side to the 500. The engine sits in the same place I'd imagine so that means the sprocket should also need to sit in the same place to line up with the front sprocket.

Unless the frame was slightly altered between the 500 and 550 so the engine sat slightly out of line between the 2 models.

[McCabe-Thiele (Ted)]

Could it be they altered the rear swing arm design Ken?