How to: Remove and re-install wheels (complete beginner's guide)

[TLR Junkie]

Disclaimer: This guide, whilst very detailed, is intended to complement the workshop manual and not replace it. If you are in any doubt as to your abilities to safely carry out work on your machine, get someone to help you or pay a garage to do it for you.

You are ultimately responsible for your own work




How to:


Firstly, apologies that this thread is so detailed. My logic being that people familiar with working on bikes aren't really going to need this thread as removing wheels is a pretty much every-day job. It's therefore aimed at people who are relatively new to working on bikes.



Some info:




The bottle jack you see in this thread is a cheapy from Halfords. It's plenty good enough for lifting bikes.





A regular 12 sided socket (above) is what you get in most socket sets. I prefer to use impact sockets (below) which are six-sided and drive on the flats of nuts rather than on the corners. Much less chance of rounding off nuts. If you can only afford one set of sockets, go for 6 sided if possible as they're more versatile







Keeping removed nuts organised means you don't miss anything out and you don't lose anything.







Latex gloves keep all sorts of nasty chemicals and grime off your hands.







However, latex doesn't last long when it comes in contact with petroleum based products such as paraffin or Vaseline. Vinyl is petrol resistant but more sweaty.





Removing the wheels: before you raise the bike off the ground







Use a breaker arm and 36mm socket to loosen off the rear axle nut.







Slacken the front pinch bolts using a six-sided socket. Loosen them right off then remove them, but do them evenly and not one at a time.





Do the same with the front axle nut as with the rear (27mm socket - called a diesel injector socket in Halfords IIRC). You only need to slacken it so it's easier to undo when the bike's off the ground and balancing on stands.





On a TL-R, you can just remove the belly pan to access the sump. On most GSX-R's as I recall, you need to remove the side plastics. You'll need access to the sump when we come to raise the front.



Getting the back wheel out:





Lift the bike on to an Abba stand.







Now we need to undo the torque link nut - it's the one holding the brake caliper to the metal bar below the swingarm.





Counter hold the bolt with a 14mm socket on an extension bar, and loosen the nut with a ratchet and another 14mm socket. Remove the nut and bolt.





Remove the mudguard (only two hex bolts with a couple of washers) to improve access to the chain.





Spin off the nut with a 36mm socket





Note the order of the bits that come off. Nut, Washer, Adjuster block.





Take the weight of the wheel with your feet, so you can push the axle out from the left hand side.





Still supporting the wheel, pull out the axle and support the caliper with your free hand.





Zip tie the caliper to the other side of the swingarm. It keeps it out of the way and avoids straining the brake hose.





Still supporting the wheel, Push the rear wheel as far forwards as you can. This allows you to un-hook the chain from the rear sprocket.





The wheel is now free to be removed from the bike. Do not rest the wheel on the rear disc.





Here you can see the cut in the rear tyre that punctured it. You can thank that for this thread...

[TLR Junkie]

Removing the front wheel:




Prepare a few loops of zip ties





Hang them off your mirror / indicator stalk etc. They will support the front calipers when they're removed from the bike in a minute.





Slacken off the two brake caliper mounting bolts





Supporting the caliper with your free hand, remove the bolts





Using a zip tie through one of the mounting holes, attach the caliper to your supports.







Repeat for the other side.





Find a suitable piece of wood to protect the sump when you jack it up. This is a sample of plywood from Ainsworth timber.





Pump the jack into contact with the wood. Take the weight off the front tyre, but don't raise it off the ground.





Undo the front axle with a socket until the thread is free of the ally spacer on the other side. You'll know you're there when the axle is just turning rather than unscrewing.





Lift the wheel enough that you can support its weight with your feet







Withdraw the axle taking care to keep the wheel free of the spacer. You don't want that spacer being the only thing holding the wheel up otherwise you could damage it.





Raise the bike enough that you can clear the mudguard with the wheel.





Roll out the front wheel. Don't rest the wheel on the discs. They are very fragile and expensive to replace. Brake discs must be replaced as a pair, and with new pads. If you buy OE replacements that's best part of £250. Be careful!





She's not going anywhere!



Getting the tyres changed





New vs. old. You can see how much more pointy the Pilot Sports are than the BT-021s that are coming off. That rear had plenty of life left in it, but I couldn't afford another set of 021's and I needed to replace both tyres. Pilot Sports were £149 delivered for the pair.









Chat up some totty with a car (I used my girlfriend, but you don't have to do this), and get her to drive you to your local tyre changer (I used Rubber Ranch in Biggin Hill). Cleaning the wheels before you put them in the car is probably a good idea...

[TLR Junkie]

Putting the wheels back in:





Check the tyres are on the wheels the right way round, and that you know which way round the front wheel has to go in the bike. Tyres and wheels have directional arrows on them to make this easier.





Clean up the spacer in the front fork.





Roll the front wheel back in







Lower the bike CAREFULLY until the wheel is approximately in line with the spacer.





Clean up the front axle with paraffin and autosol. Apply some lithium (general purpose) grease to the shaft, and copper grease to the thread.





Spread the lithium grease evenly over the shaft









Support the wheel with your feet, and push the axle through the front wheel. Screw it in as far as you can by hand.



Check the wheel spins freely: CLICK HERE





Lower the front end of the bike and remove the jack - it's done it's job now





Prepare some tools to reinstall the brake callipers, and dab some grease on the mounting bolt threads.





Cut the zip ties supporting the callipers, and offer the calliper up to the fork. Lightly screw in the bolts to take the weight of the calliper.





Use a ratchet to bring the bolts into light contact with the fork





And use a torque wrench with six-sided sockets to tighten them up. Do them up equally in stages - don't do one bolt then the other. I go 10Nm, 25Nm, 35Nm, 39Nm.



Repeat for the other side.







Re-install the front axle with a small ratchet until you feel it start to tighten up. That's enough, as you will come back with a torque wrench later for final tightening. Grease the threads of the pinch bolts generously. They're vulnerable to road filth and you don't want them to seize.





Put one in finger-tight, and the other loosely as follows. It will act as a reminder to tighten them later. You need the back wheel in before you can tighten them as you'll see later.



Now the back.







Clean the chain and around the inside of the swingarm with a paraffin soaked rag. This thread is testament to how good Scottoilers are. You can see how filthy the bike gets when it's ridden in all weathers (my car is off the road hence my lack of enthusiasm for cleaning the bike). The chain has NOT ONE stiff link or roller. And I haven't given it any attention WHATSOEVER for at least 1,000 miles now. They're great



Make sure the chain rollers rotate freely and you have no stiff links: CLICK HERE





Clean and grease the rear axle as before, but no need to copper grease the thread yet.





Offer the rear wheel up to the inside of the swingarm.





Get the axle and cable cutters in easy reach. You're about to do the most fiddly part of the whole job.

[TLR Junkie]

Lift the rear wheel, taking the weight with your feet. Hook the chain back over the sprocket.





Clip the cable tie and take the weight of the caliper with your free hand





Wiggle everything into place. Note the torque link hole and axle hole of the calliper mount are all roughly in place.







Slide the axle through the swingarm, calliper mount and rear wheel until it pops out the other side.







Push the torque link bolt through from the other side, and put the nut on finger tight. The bolt must be this way round because when you torque a nut and bolt, you apply the torque to the NUT.





Copper grease the axle thread.







Re-install the alignment block (make sure it's the right way round!!! You should see marks on it from the adjusters which will help you identify which way up it goes) and the washer and nut.





There will most likely be gaps between the adjusters and the adjuster blocks. Push the wheel forwards in the swingarm to bring them into contact on both sides.





Using a small ratchet, gradually tighten the rear axle nut as tight as you can get it (without excessive force). Continually check that the adjuster blocks are in contact with the adjusters to preserve wheel alignment. Note that this whole task has not required you to disturb the adjusters. This may be unavoidable if your chain is a bit tight however.



Lower the bike off the abba stand - the bike can now stand on it's own two feet (or wheels )







Tighten both axles to 100Nm. I go in stages 60Nm, 80Nm, 100Nm to get a feel for how tight they should be and avoid over tightening. The rear is quite resistant to over tightening, but the front is far more vulnerable to damage as you're screwing a steel axle into an ally thread.





Counter hold the torque link bolt and torque the nut to the correct setting (35Nm on my bike)





Pump the front and rear brakes to bring the pads back into contact with the discs.





Might as well check your chain tension whilst you're working on the wheels









Re-install the plastics and the chain guard



Now you need to pump the front forks to settle the axle in the forks: CLICK HERE



Now you can torque the front pinch bolts: CLICK HERE





Let the wonderful Debbie McGee amuse herself with the camera and satisfy her narcissistic tendencies



And job's a good 'un



I'd recommend checking all the bolts are tight, that your chain tension is right and the wheel alignment is a-okay.



Take it for a shake-down ride round the block and make sure it's all good. Take care on new tyres as they will be covered in release compound from the mould.







Thanks to my ever-patient other half for taking all the photos and keeping me supplied with tea throughout

[voodootwin]

Fantastic!! You know if you do this for every repair project, the forum will have a nice detailed, color illustrated shop manual. And hats off to wifey for the great photography.

[TLR-Billbo]

nice write-up! a little advice though...use bel-ray superclean chain lube...no more black wheels

[TLR Junkie]

She's not wifey just yet; only a few months to go though I'll pass on the praises!!

The scottoiler does tend to make a mess of white wheels. I could turn it down a touch, but I'd invariably forget to turn it up again when it rains!!!

I'm sure there will be a few more how-to's in the pipeline. I haven't written any more just yet, but the service coming up after the current one is a valve clearance check, so I'm sure I'll do one for that (which will also include TB balance no doubt). Watch this space

[Sam]

Great write up

A good tip and frequent mod is to swap the rear axle over so the nut is on the right hand side, prevents the chain tightening more than normal when tighening the nut.

[D'Ecosse]

Screw the bike pics - we want to see more of Debbie McGee!

Good detail. The only constructive critique I would make is the use of grease on the threads - spec torque settings go out the window when you apply grease. You need to reduce at least 25% for that.
Better yet, leave them dry.

I prefer to leave the axles dry also - they don't really need grease and it just makes them messy.

[IOWNATL1000S]

nice write up, good to see people giving others advice with colour pictures,,, that always helps.

The only bit i will add is to avoid the removing of belly pans, is to use a front paddock stand under the forks,,,, probably the same price as the jack.