Xj650 maxim - rear wheel offset?

Yeah, it’s in there. Before I disassembled it, the adjuster was out quite a bit, but the arm could shake a bit horizontally, so I wonder if it was because of the tire or something?

 

You are correct, not much you can get wrong on the swing arm installation. Do you have the "collar" in place on both sides? If not, that would cause some issues. Are you running a stock size tire?

 

Here are some other pics that might help.

Wheel clearance to see if you wheel is off center:

Right side dang close to 1.5"



Left side is close:



Here's where my adjustment is at:

 

Whats more important than 'just' clearance, is how much your F and R wheels are, in line.....how much 'off' is that alignment ....swingarm or frame tweaked???

I DO remember a Bike (UK) motorcycle mag, from the early 80's. testing the (then) new GSXR750's at the B'ol D'or 24 Hour races....they measured and rechecked the fresh out of the crate F>R tyre alignment, and it was off.....maybe 2-3 mm's....when asked, the present Suzuki technicians said.....'inscrutably?..."Who says Front and Rear wheels have to align?"........

 

They are right.

I know that the rear on my and a friend's first-gen Viragos aren't aligned with the front. The same goes for my XJ, and many of the other shaft-driven XJs that I've worked on.
Many of the early belt-drive bikes (cogged belts, not the leather belts from the golden age) also have rear wheels that are not meant to be in-line with the front.

 

This was a (race derived ) chain drive GSXR750 though, lol !!!

 

I realise. It's still not all that uncommon for the rear to be offset from the front.

 

that clearance looks about right to me. mine was touching so i smoothed the weld on the swingarm a little and spun the tire and touched the very edge with a disk sander.
now it's about 3/8 inch clearance. once it's all tight, clearance is clearance
this was a 130 kenda tire

 

F R inline, as much as can be, more important than clearance........

 

Yamaha didn't think so. They never were directly in-line to begin with. In any case, the two stop being in-line as soon as a turn is initiated.

The one exception is if the front (when pointed straight ahead) and rear aren't rolling on parallel planes. If the rear has any caster to it, she'll handle like crap and tend to want to crab. For a shaft-driven XJ, that condition would indicate a bent frame or bent swingarm.