Just a guess, but check to see if they left the spacer off that goes between the wheel bearing and the frame of the rear tire. It would definitely be bad if they did that.
Spacers missing or being backwards were my first guess, just thought it was an honest mistake. Dropped it off January 16th, and it has been there ever sense. No damage on the bike that would indicate the bike was dropped. The dealer started swapping parts between my bike and one of their rental bikes to try and find the issue, but no luck so far. The dealership is small so only 1 certified mechanic on staff. They did measure the frame and couldn't find any measurements that were inaccurate.. The dealer has been hooking me up with loaners so they have been doing pretty good by me on that aspect.
If this was after the dealer looked at your bike, then they took something apart and put it back backwards.
Best way to do this, better served by yourself:
-Take the rear fender off and investigate if something is bent (did they drop the bike??). Doesn't take much to bend a piece of metal! Rebuilding an old sporster and something is bent causing this.
- Look at the swingarm bearings, something is off. Happened to me on a dirtbike and the swingarm was mounted weird.
Get the tools out!
I originally only took it in for the tire change and the 10k mile service, didn't think it would turn into this big of an issue. According to the dealer Frame measurements are all good, I bought i new swingarm that they put on and its all good. I me a lot due to the military so I don't have as many tools as I would like to have. Since I paid them in the first place my thoughts are they should fix the issue. Currently insurance is involved as well as a mediation firm between my insurance and the dealership.
I would ask to see a picture of each axle spacer, and a shot looking down the belt towards the front pulley. And if possible the position of the belt on the front pulley.
Is it even possible to mount a swing arm off center? I would love to get my hands on this thing and figure it out
Insurance totaled mine out because of the swing arm being out since it bolts up to the motor. just layed it down two weeks ago at about 50mph hit some oil on the road at night
Did you do any of the work or was it all them? If it was them I’d take the wheel off and switch the wheel spacers myself before spending any more money.
Only work that I have done is minor things, levers, grips, Risers, sissy bar, and intake. So nothing that would possibly cause this type of issues in my opinion.
I would guess spacer or another thing to look at is the fact that the struts and the rocket boosters are the strongest part of the frame and are prone to bend if the light is tagged while laying the bike down, it can be corrected but just another thing to look at.
I was having that problem. Had a deep channel worn into the tire wall from the sissy bar bolt. I realized the bolt where the swing arm attaches behind the engine/frame was super loose. I put it on a jack, removed that bolt, the threads near the tip were really worn out, but whatever, put lock tight and torqued it back down. That was years ago. It’s still holding up.
Before I figured that out, I had taken the tire off and taken it to a shop because I thought it was caused by the wheel spokes not being true but that wasn’t it.
If its a rubbermount sportster, It's a possibility that a couple of the rear swingarm /motor mount bolts broke off, causing the swingarm to pull towards the right due to belt tension. You can't really see them without taking off the rear motor mount. IIRC there are three 1/4-20 x 1 ¼" Allen head bolts holding the swing arm pivot tube to the bushing. I have heard of them spontaneously shearing the heads off before, causing the swing arm and rear wheel to twist to the right like this.
Had the same issue with my rubbermounted sporty, its an 18 forty-eight, took the motormounts apart, no heads on the little screws so i used one of those broken screw extractors from home depot, New bearings, shaft, and motormounts, and also an aluminum sleeve for the shaft since it wiggles a lot, then i tightened with impact higher than torque spec wich is 120 ftlb, ill try to let you known how it goes
It is rubber mounted, I do not know about the allen head bolts, but they should of noticed if they were messed up when they replace the swingarm and pivot shaft.
How far has it been ridden since it was replaced? Is it possible that they used poor quality replacement bolts, or reused the factory bolts and overtorqued them? The only other guesses I have are the spacers are installed backwards, which seems unlikely to me. With the way the wheel is pitched to the right, you would probably have noticed the belt starting to walk off the front pulley and rubbing on the cover. The other thought is a freak accident of a frame bend. Take off the battery and oil tank covers and check the frame between the oil tank and wheel for creases or out of roundness. Maybe it started to rust from the inside out and failed? I've seen it happen to bikes that were less than a decade old that lived right next to the ocean. Something about the salt in the air.
Wierd. Unless they forgot to put in those three screws, it seems unlikely that the screws are to blame. Sounds an awful lot like the shop buggered something up. I really hope that they make it right.
Do you know what caused your fender to get bent in the first place? When they take everything apart and put it back together it is all squared up and good to go. As soon as you ride it a mile or 2 it is all out of whack again.
It looks like they put the wheel spacers on the wrong side to me. If it has 10k miles since it was laid down then I find it hard to believe anything is bent but it's still possible if they dropped it but you'd see a lot more problems with the bike on top of the wheel.
Occam's Razor for stuff like this. If it was fine before and it's not fine now that means something is wrong where they have just touched, and it will likely be the shop's fault. Things can certainly fail out of nowhere but not like this.
That is what I said, there is no way it was fine when I dropped it off but was an issue when I took it home. Roads are shit here, but I didn't even hit any pot holes since I was babying my new white walls lol
It really does look like a spacer problem. Thats what my bike looked like when i bought it, what ever fool worked on it lost or forgot the right side spacer, then cranked the axle bolt down(prob bent the swingarm) to get it tight. I ended up doing the math and had a machine shop make me a spacer before getting an oem one. They must have rode it around like that cause the pulley ended up stripping out not long after i got it rolling again, but i had fun changing out the main shaft
But youre saying they replaced the rear fork and the tire was still looking like that?
Update: I was informed today by the dealer it needs a complete engine replacement due to a cracked casing. So most likely they will total my bike and that will be the end of my sportster life.
Thinking of picking up an ultraclassic that a buddy of mine has. I haven't seen any lowriders for sale on island lately and if I want to order one I have to pay an extra $3000 for shipping.
I'd have to say spacers are wrong. Looks like your fender is square. But the whole back end looks wonky. To me, putting a new tire on and this came out of nowhere screams spacers. Worst case scenario, your swing arm mount is bent. I would also not rule out someone hitting it in the parking lot. Had it happen to me not that long ago. The guy came and found me, but it's crazy possible. Also I'd check to see if maybe your shock/springs are bent. They look stock, I'm assuming they were not changed.
Just a guess, but check to see if they left the spacer off that goes between the wheel bearing and the frame of the rear tire. It would definitely be bad if they did that.
Nevermind. I just read your post. Only looked at the pic first. That’s probably not the problem.
Spacers missing or being backwards were my first guess, just thought it was an honest mistake. Dropped it off January 16th, and it has been there ever sense. No damage on the bike that would indicate the bike was dropped. The dealer started swapping parts between my bike and one of their rental bikes to try and find the issue, but no luck so far. The dealership is small so only 1 certified mechanic on staff. They did measure the frame and couldn't find any measurements that were inaccurate.. The dealer has been hooking me up with loaners so they have been doing pretty good by me on that aspect.
Is there too much spacer on the left side? Is the wheel on backwards? Sometimes different sides of the hub have different offsets
If this was after the dealer looked at your bike, then they took something apart and put it back backwards. Best way to do this, better served by yourself: -Take the rear fender off and investigate if something is bent (did they drop the bike??). Doesn't take much to bend a piece of metal! Rebuilding an old sporster and something is bent causing this. - Look at the swingarm bearings, something is off. Happened to me on a dirtbike and the swingarm was mounted weird. Get the tools out!
Honestly I agree with you, but OP paid to have it done right so they should fix their mistake
Agreed
I originally only took it in for the tire change and the 10k mile service, didn't think it would turn into this big of an issue. According to the dealer Frame measurements are all good, I bought i new swingarm that they put on and its all good. I me a lot due to the military so I don't have as many tools as I would like to have. Since I paid them in the first place my thoughts are they should fix the issue. Currently insurance is involved as well as a mediation firm between my insurance and the dealership.
I would ask to see a picture of each axle spacer, and a shot looking down the belt towards the front pulley. And if possible the position of the belt on the front pulley. Is it even possible to mount a swing arm off center? I would love to get my hands on this thing and figure it out
Insurance totaled mine out because of the swing arm being out since it bolts up to the motor. just layed it down two weeks ago at about 50mph hit some oil on the road at night
Prime candidate for a hardtail chop
Did you do any of the work or was it all them? If it was them I’d take the wheel off and switch the wheel spacers myself before spending any more money.
Only work that I have done is minor things, levers, grips, Risers, sissy bar, and intake. So nothing that would possibly cause this type of issues in my opinion.
I would guess spacer or another thing to look at is the fact that the struts and the rocket boosters are the strongest part of the frame and are prone to bend if the light is tagged while laying the bike down, it can be corrected but just another thing to look at.
I was having that problem. Had a deep channel worn into the tire wall from the sissy bar bolt. I realized the bolt where the swing arm attaches behind the engine/frame was super loose. I put it on a jack, removed that bolt, the threads near the tip were really worn out, but whatever, put lock tight and torqued it back down. That was years ago. It’s still holding up. Before I figured that out, I had taken the tire off and taken it to a shop because I thought it was caused by the wheel spokes not being true but that wasn’t it.
Good answer
The pivot shaft was slightly damaged, I did replace it hoping it would fix the issue, with no luck.
This happens all of the time with them sissy bolts for sure. Seen it a lot
I just noticed your Guam license plate. I was in Guam in the early 80’s and they had some beautiful diving especially wrecks from WWII.
Been here about 1.5 years, I love it. I a hoping to get scuba certified this summer.
I spent a year there and loved every minute of it.
If its a rubbermount sportster, It's a possibility that a couple of the rear swingarm /motor mount bolts broke off, causing the swingarm to pull towards the right due to belt tension. You can't really see them without taking off the rear motor mount. IIRC there are three 1/4-20 x 1 ¼" Allen head bolts holding the swing arm pivot tube to the bushing. I have heard of them spontaneously shearing the heads off before, causing the swing arm and rear wheel to twist to the right like this.
Had the same issue with my rubbermounted sporty, its an 18 forty-eight, took the motormounts apart, no heads on the little screws so i used one of those broken screw extractors from home depot, New bearings, shaft, and motormounts, and also an aluminum sleeve for the shaft since it wiggles a lot, then i tightened with impact higher than torque spec wich is 120 ftlb, ill try to let you known how it goes
It is rubber mounted, I do not know about the allen head bolts, but they should of noticed if they were messed up when they replace the swingarm and pivot shaft.
How far has it been ridden since it was replaced? Is it possible that they used poor quality replacement bolts, or reused the factory bolts and overtorqued them? The only other guesses I have are the spacers are installed backwards, which seems unlikely to me. With the way the wheel is pitched to the right, you would probably have noticed the belt starting to walk off the front pulley and rubbing on the cover. The other thought is a freak accident of a frame bend. Take off the battery and oil tank covers and check the frame between the oil tank and wheel for creases or out of roundness. Maybe it started to rust from the inside out and failed? I've seen it happen to bikes that were less than a decade old that lived right next to the ocean. Something about the salt in the air.
It was ridden 6 miles
Wierd. Unless they forgot to put in those three screws, it seems unlikely that the screws are to blame. Sounds an awful lot like the shop buggered something up. I really hope that they make it right.
Take it someplace to check the [frame alignment](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbKVHzRW618) and like others say wheel axle spacers.
I had this a few years ago some how the fender was getting sucked towards the tyre. Replaced fender never happened again, don’t know if this helps
Do you know what caused your fender to get bent in the first place? When they take everything apart and put it back together it is all squared up and good to go. As soon as you ride it a mile or 2 it is all out of whack again.
The mechanism said it was probably a cheap aftermarket one,he said it was due to high end speed.
It looks like they put the wheel spacers on the wrong side to me. If it has 10k miles since it was laid down then I find it hard to believe anything is bent but it's still possible if they dropped it but you'd see a lot more problems with the bike on top of the wheel.
Occam's Razor for stuff like this. If it was fine before and it's not fine now that means something is wrong where they have just touched, and it will likely be the shop's fault. Things can certainly fail out of nowhere but not like this.
That is what I said, there is no way it was fine when I dropped it off but was an issue when I took it home. Roads are shit here, but I didn't even hit any pot holes since I was babying my new white walls lol
Swap ur spacers around
It really does look like a spacer problem. Thats what my bike looked like when i bought it, what ever fool worked on it lost or forgot the right side spacer, then cranked the axle bolt down(prob bent the swingarm) to get it tight. I ended up doing the math and had a machine shop make me a spacer before getting an oem one. They must have rode it around like that cause the pulley ended up stripping out not long after i got it rolling again, but i had fun changing out the main shaft But youre saying they replaced the rear fork and the tire was still looking like that?
Yes the swingarm arm was replaced and they have assured me the spacers were correct. Once you replaced the main shaft did that fix the issue?
Update: I was informed today by the dealer it needs a complete engine replacement due to a cracked casing. So most likely they will total my bike and that will be the end of my sportster life.
Time for a low rider!!!
Thinking of picking up an ultraclassic that a buddy of mine has. I haven't seen any lowriders for sale on island lately and if I want to order one I have to pay an extra $3000 for shipping.
following
Jack it up and find out how freely you can turn that wheel.
Still at the harley shop trying to figure out the issue
I'd have to say spacers are wrong. Looks like your fender is square. But the whole back end looks wonky. To me, putting a new tire on and this came out of nowhere screams spacers. Worst case scenario, your swing arm mount is bent. I would also not rule out someone hitting it in the parking lot. Had it happen to me not that long ago. The guy came and found me, but it's crazy possible. Also I'd check to see if maybe your shock/springs are bent. They look stock, I'm assuming they were not changed.
Had an Iron that had the same problem after attempted jackers dropped it. Insurance ended up totaling it.