Axle Nut Stopping Front Wheel from Spinning - HELP Please!!

Hi All,

Long story short - swapped the front mag wheel from my XS400 for a spoke wheel from an RD250.

The wheel spins freely on the axle, brake disc is perfectly centered in the caliper...UNTIL I tighten the axle nut more than finger tight and it stops the wheel from spinning.

Once tightened, a hard Price is Right style spin yields about 1/3 rotation max.

Has anyone run into this issue before? Any advice would be a huge help!

Does it act like this if you remove the brake caliper? Check to make sure you have the spacers installed correctly and bearings are good.

Is the bearing spacer inside the hub?

Are they the right spacers ?

Take the wheel off. Assemble the wheel and axle off the bike with the speedo drive and all the spacers on in there proper place. Add a dummy spacer or a bunch of washers to mimic the one fork leg that the axle passes through. (The other fork leg has a clamp, and does not come into play with the axle assembly.) Put the nut on and tighten like it would be on the bike. The wheel should spin freely on the axle. If it does, you know there is an alignment or interference problem with the brake or wheel, or possibly it is just the brake pads dragging. Take some wood shims or paint sticks, etc, and push the pads/pistons into the caliper so you know that is not it. Be mindful of back filling the master when you do this. If the wheel does not spin on the axle, figure out why. Make sure the center spacer is in between the two wheel bearings. If it got left out, that is the problem. Check the spacer/dust covers that cover the seals. Most of these appear to be a single part, but actually are two pieces, a solid spacer and a stamped sheet metal cover for the seal. The cover is just pressed on to the spacer, and could be missaligned and rubbing on the seal when the axle is tightened. You should be able to push them fair against the inner bearing race, and turn it by hand and detect that bearing is rolling like it should and their is no excess rubbing anywhere. Lastly, make sure you are assembling the axle correctly. The cap on the fork leg opposite the axle nut must be loose when you tighten the axle nut, and should not be tightened until last, and then only after you bounce the suspension a couple of times to remove any possible binding on the forks.

Thanks for the advice everyone - I've tried all of the above and it's still not right. I loosened the axle pinch bolts and triple trees and bounced the front end a few times to align everything - this made some improvement but it's still not right.

Hoping it'll settle in once I get a few miles on the new wheels.

hillsy said:

Is the bearing spacer inside the hub?

Click to expand...

Did you verify what hillsy asked? Its a long spacer that sits inside the hub between the two bearings.

There is no "settling in". If it does not roll freely, there is something wrong, in a don't ride it until you solve it way. Finding the problem is a fairly simple process of elimination, but you have to be methodical and not skip any steps.

Yup - you'll seize the bearings and the front wheel will lock up. Likely when you're in the middle of a sweeper with oncoming traffic in the opposing lane. That's when bad things always happens.