Rear axle bolt spacer assembly

Hello all,

I'm wondering if someone can post a photo of their rear axle (both sides) from an xj700n. The reason is that although I appear to have all the correct spacers (according to the shop manual), when I tighten my axle bolt as specd (105Nm), the rear wheel binds and cannot be turned by hand.

Of course, this makes me think that a spacer or something is missing, but unless something is missing from inside the rear wheel, everything seems to be there. Next step will be to take the wheel apart completely, if the problem continues. I don't see how anything could be missing because I really doubt the PO had the wheel off ever, and the only thing I have done is checked the brakes (doesn't require dismantling the actual wheel).

Thoughts?

 

Did you do the "pinch bolt" last??

 

I'm not familiar with your bike, but if the swingarm has a 'pinch bolt', it needs be be left loose while tightening the axle nut.

<EDIT>
OOPS, time to ride beat me to it. But we both had the same thought, so that's good!

 

+2 on the pinch bolt & you should have a large washer between the brake hub & the shank of the axel, then there is a long spacer inside the hub & a short fat one.

 

+3
A washer (spacer) on both sides-thats it.

 

Gents,

Tried all suggestions.

Couple o' things. First, the manual says "reverse to re-assemble" or whatever, and it definitely says to loosen the pinch bolt last to dis-assemble, hence it should be first when assembling. I believe you guys though, so I tried it both ways. No dice. Binds either way.

So, wheel back off (fun times). This time I got a bearing puller and took the suckers out. The spacer and the flange look as pictured in the manual. I suppose the spacer sits inside the flange, although I had assumed it pressed against it. Anyway, looked right.

The issue appears to be that the spline piece presses against the drive housing when the bolt is tightened above about 50 Nm. I can think of basically one reason for this, which is that the bearings are supposed to sit proud of the edge of the drive spline, so the pressure from the bolt is transmitted through the centers of the bearings and through the inner spacer. My bearings sit about 1 mm or so shy of the spline and so they seem like they are pressing against the drive housing.

Does anyone know what the left-hand side of the wheel should look like, bearing-wise?

I can also say that the bearings are, from left to right: B6203LU, B6203, B6303RS. This is NOT what is listed in the manual. Manual says: B6203RS, B6203, B6203. I didn't actually measure but the 6303 looks larger than the 6203.

Anyone guide me right on this? Do have a wrong bearing? And should the bearings be proud so that force can be applied without binding? Or is the issue something different?

 

A look at the parts manual shows that there should be 2- B6203 bearings on the left (drive hub) side of the wheel. It appears you were given an incorrect part with the B6203LU bearing.

Ghost

 

Chacal, if you are out there in the ether---do you have any information on this? Will a new set of bearings fix my problem?

 

Alright,

Spoke to Chacal, and the bearings are fine. The letters at the end refer to what type of seals the bearings have, they're not size related, he says. So now I'm at a loss again. I have checked that everything is there and correct, and I've re-assembled everything with the proper torque and it always binds. Can anyone think of anything else I could check for?

The only other thing I can think of is that the swingarm on the right side doesn't line up exactly when I try to put the axle through. I have to muscle it into position somewhat. I suppose this could be a problem, but I will also point out that the wheel spins at least a full turn by hand when the axle nut is only put on lightly (let's say 20 Nm), and then won't turn at all at full torque (105 Nm). So I don't really think it's the swingarm.

Next time a get the chance I will draw with a sharpie on the various parts to try to see exactly where it's binding. Until then, if you can think of something, I'd love to hear.

 

Hi guys, I have an 82 XJ650J with the same issue. One thing I have noticed on my bike is when the nut on the axle is tightened up, the hole in the axle for the split pin is far enough away from the nut that the pin could not engage together and lock it in place. I could still tighten it further but as it is the wheel cant be budged even with excessive force. So I have to ask, is there a spacer that is supposed to be installed between the brake assembly and the diff? The Haynes manual is near useless. Thanks.

 

You are sure the spacer in the hub is still there? I ask this because it has been the cause of this exact prob more than once?

 

Excellent (well, not for you or me, but maybe we can figure this out together).

Here's an update. I took everything apart. I mean, the entire back wheel. I didn't completely dismantle the drive unit, since this is hard and requires some special tools (or so says the manual), but I did open the drive unit just to check. Which resulted in an oil explosion, but I digress.

Here's a partial conclusion: I had a bearing that needed to be re-packed. I will replace it at the end of this riding season. Check your bearings, just in case.

However, I don't really think that was the cause of the binding I was/am having. If you take your brake out of the wheel, you will likely notice two things:

1. There is brake dust everywhere (mine didn't seem too bad, but I think it was after all).
2. There is a little band of rust on the inside of the drum to the outside (right side) of where the shoes contact the wheel.

Here's what I think. There was enough rust dust and brake shoe dust fluttering around inside my wheel that it built up in the little gap between the wheel (which obviously rotates) and the aluminum brake housing (which obviously is held still by the bar that comes off the frame). This had built up to enough to close this gap when a lot of torque was applied to the bolt, and create a great deal of friction.

What I did was to pull out the emery cloth and give the wheel and the brake housing a good sanding inside of the interlocking gaps to get the dust out. There was a lot, and it did appear to have smooth, shiny tracks through it where the wheel contacted the dust.

That being said, I have not entirely eliminated this problem, although I have improved it substantially. I think I may need to do more sanding. You may want to check yours and try this and see if it fixes it. If so then I think we'll have learned something.

Next chance I get, I will continue to mess with this. If it doesn't help, I'm going to get a bunch of washers at the hardware store so that I can attach the wheel without the brake housing and torque it up just to check if it's the brake housing causing the binding. I don't think any of the bearings in the drive housing could really go bad, because they pretty much sit in oil, but this should tell you if one of the bearings is binding.

Finally, I did check that every piece was there when I took my wheel apart, and I cross checked with Len. It goes like this (for an 85 xj700, others may be different):

Thick washer (small ID) : drive housing : B6203 : B6203 : spacer tube : flange washer (goes around the spacer tube) : B6303 : Thick washer (big ID)

 

Just had the rear apart this weekend, and noticed that there is an additional spacer/collar between the final drive, and wheel hub.

This spacer/collar can be seen in this schematic. Item #41 in the top left corner.

http://www.yamahapartshouse.net/pages/O ... MOTORCYCLE)/DRIVE_SHAFT_(XJ700N_-_1985)

Make sure this spacer/collar is in place or the wheel will pinch against the final drive when the axle shaft is tighten down.

Ghost

 

Thanks guys, I think we are on the right track.

 

ARGH! Sure enough, I finally pinned down a photo of what the drive unit is supposed to look like and I am missing the fraggnabbed spacer that goes inside the drive unit.

Then, when putting the drive unit back together (I took it apart just to make sure everything there looked good, since I'm going to have to put in a parts order), I cracked the plate that holds the "ring gear" assembly in place. So now I have to track down one of those, replace it and shim the thing. GRUMBLE. Does anyone have one to sell? Pretty please?

Anyway, simple answer to the binding question. But at least this way I discovered that my wheel bearings could be replaced. And I get to learn more about the final drive!

Hey, I'm just trying to look on the bright side...

Also, I feel like an idiot for not discovering this right away, and I'm mad as hell at the PO for apparently losing a part and still putting it back together. And an idiot for overtightening an aluminum part. Ah, such is life.

 

I finally got the spacer from the dealer today and that was my problem. Only cost $10, everything tightened up as it should and the wheel spins easily. Very happy! Thanks everyone for your help.

 

You have a PM!

Ghost

 

Hi guys, we have exact the same problem but with a XJ650G from 1980.
We have taken the whole bike apart, painted the frame, changing bearings in the wheels, new bearings, o-rings, oilseals etc in the engine (almost 2000 US in parts).

Try to get the rear wheel back and it get stuck far away from the 77 nm that is stated in Service Manual.
First we thought it was the dustcover (21) and it was making marks inside. But even without the dustcover the wheel got stuck with almost no torque.

According to the picture http://www.yamahapartshouse.net/pages/O ... MOTORCYCLE)/REAR_WHEEL_(XJ650G_-_1980)
we have the axle (23) and the collar (27) on the right side (collar outside the brakedrum) and then nothing except the washer and the special nut on the left side.
Inside we replaced the 3 bearings with original Yamaha parts with the right numbers. The spacer (2) and the flange (3) are there.
We actually took 2 XJ650 apart (1980 and 1981) and we have messed it up a little here and there keeping the different parts apart. But we tried the other wheel that we have not changed bearings in and we got the same problem.
And looking in EBAY where someone sold a complete rear axle there were the axle, the nut and 3 different washers, collars (not 2 that we are trying with).

So my question, Have we missed something, should it be another washer-collar somewhere? Cannot find that in the partslist, not in Haynes and not in Yamaha Service manual.

So if someone got an advice or the cause of the problem, we would be very happy.
We are 3 seniors living in Chiang Rai, northern Thailand (65 km south of Golden Triangle).

Thanks!