Ideas on checking rear wheel alignment?

[macmac]

Originally Posted by Mongo PHUMC

I don't believe those shims are for the alignment of the wheel to the rest of the bike. I believe it has to do with the axle shaft and final drive alignment in the swingarm. If you understood machining practices the shims make perfect sense. They probably have a machine length of +.000 and - up to the 1.2mm. That way it gives them room to shim. Yes, you are probably right in that it is for driveshaft spacing or just the final drive to axle length.

Is it possible to change wheel alignment with the shims? Possibly. But, you could run the risk of putting the driveshaft in a bind. It doesn't have 2 u-joints like a vehicle so the final drive end needs to be properly aligned or you run the risk of damaging the splines.

What? You don't like itailian bolts When i get up in the morning i don't see no body and about by bed time it is still the same, so I rant and rave around heya' when it suits me. Some people like it.

[Mongo PHUMC]

Originally Posted by VulcanE

That is exactly what I was refering to back in post #13 when I said ("I'm sure there is a "number" from the face of the final drive where it mates to the drive shaft tube, and the center-line of the hole the axle goes thru, and those shims make it hit that "number".)

Sorry, I must have read over that post. I wont let it happen again.

I'm still not sure if those shims have to do with wheel alignment or just the drive shaft spacing. I would have to rip the bike apart to look. Weather is getting nice...you will have to wait till winter. LOL ;)

[Mongo PHUMC]

Originally Posted by macmac

What? You don't like itailian bolts

I try to stick to Italian women. They are WAY more entertaining!

[macmac]

Originally Posted by Mongo PHUMC

I try to stick to Italian women. They are WAY more entertaining!

Women? At my age thar's not a whole lot of point is wondering about the womens. Didn't know they made bolts fer um either. Go figure

[VulcanE]

Originally Posted by Mongo PHUMC

Sorry, I must have read over that post. I wont let it happen again.

I'm still not sure if those shims have to do with wheel alignment or just the drive shaft spacing. I would have to rip the bike apart to look. Weather is getting nice...you will have to wait till winter. LOL ;)

Don't worry 'bout it, you phrased it better than I did, but I do think those shims are to get the axle perpendicular to the center line of the bike/drive-line.

[macmac]

Originally Posted by VulcanE

Don't worry 'bout it, you phrased it better than I did, but I do think those shims are to get the axle perpendicular to the center line of the bike/drive-line.

I am still at a loss here Bill. My 06 has the required shim pack it had from the factory, which are FOR SURE spacing the dive shaft pre load correctly. I am not about to just go take them out to look but i will when I install and new car tire soon. If i recall these are not very think at all in the first place. I don't believe all 3 stacked up make 0.50 mm.

Once more i have no really good idea of what the hell we are talking about. So far as i know there are NO shims for straightening the rear tire and if this is for that it is a terrible way to do it. What if the tire is off from the other side? LOL

If the tire is off then the swing arm is off and then the fix is back there but with out critical welding skills there is just no way to do this. I maintain that this is ALL BS on a shaft driven bike. Now chain drive belt drive Hell yeah but still not usually with shims when a bolt and lock nut do it faster and better.

Mogo yeah I know TMI

[Vulcan Bill]

Gotta keep in mind too that tweaking the wheel sideway also tweaks the brake rotor inside the caliper. The caliper floats in and out but has no sideways give so having the rotor misalignment can't be a a sound mechanical thing to do.
As it is right now the best idea I've heard so far is to inspect my swingarm for sideways slop and fab up some shims to eliminate it if there is some.
This has been interesting thread. Thanks for all the contributions.

[macmac]

Originally Posted by Vulcan Bill

Gotta keep in mind too that tweaking the wheel sideway also tweaks the brake rotor inside the caliper. The caliper floats in and out but has no sideways give so having the rotor misalignment can't be a a sound mechanical thing to do.
As it is right now the best idea I've heard so far is to inspect my swingarm for sideways slop and fab up some shims to eliminate it if there is some.
This has been interesting thread. Thanks for all the contributions.

yes and over kill if a problem that doesn't exist unless the swing arm was bent in a crash, or the frame was, but these frames can't bend much with out cracking / breaking, since they are CAST. I maintain there is no shims for alignment, but I still don't know what shims these are. My whole shim pack doesn't add up to the smallest one for sale on line. This is the kind of thing where one sheep does something for a no good reason and then all the sheep follow suit.

Like the girlieboy a few years ago who was told engine sludge was killing his few months old Mustang Ford. So the brain drained the bad oil and left the drain plug out, then started the engine and ran a garden hose with 'clean fresh water' into the oil filler hole, and when the water reached the crank shaft the engine case blew up and the crank was battered to bits. Well he sure fixed that oil sludge problem alrighty.. The bad part was no more sheep followed that i heard of

[Mongo PHUMC]

Originally Posted by macmac

I am still at a loss here Bill. My 06 has the required shim pack it had from the factory, which are FOR SURE spacing the dive shaft pre load correctly. I am not about to just go take them out to look but i will when I install and new car tire soon. If i recall these are not very think at all in the first place. I don't believe all 3 stacked up make 0.50 mm.

Mac,

Those part numbers are in mm. Kawasaki doesn't show anything in SAE.

So the shims come from .15mm up to 1.2mm. So your .5 mm sounds about right-middle of the road so to speak.

[macmac]

Yeah, that's my best guess anyway. So far I have only seen the factory shims when i was changing tires or greasing the swing arm. The only attention I paid was to clean them. I didn't need to know what the spec was because the shims are still flat. BUT if these are THE Shims people are really talking about to adjust 'toe' for lack of a better word, then it's NUTS.
I know you don't like long wordy bs so I will stop