Rear wheel removal

[peter]

I have one of those cheap Harbor Freight bike lifts and the Valk adapter. Will this be good enough to lift the Valk high enough to remove the rear wheel?
Thanks,
Peter

[Chrisj CMA]

Should work.  Go slow double check and make sure the lift engages the safety's, then use a strap or two

[John Schmidt]

Keep in mind you don't have to lift the rear wheel more than 2-3" off the floor. Put jackstands under the engine guards to stabilize it, then use a floor jack under the swingarm to relieve tension on the shocks. Remove the shocks and the back half of the rear fender(3 bolts), use the floor jack to raise the swingarm so the axle is above the exhaust. Now when you pull the wheel after everything is loosened or removed, you just roll it out. No need to raise 800 lbs. two feet in the air, no need to mess with the right side pipe at all.

[biguglyman]

What John said except I use a ratchet strap instead of a floor jack. I also have the cheap Harbor Freight lift and valk adapter and it works just fine.

[Ramie]

Just did my I/S with the HF jack and a home made adapter.  Biggest problem with the HF jack is its hard to control the descent.  I've got a hitch on mine so I pulled the bags, jacked it up a little then used a floor jack with a piece of wood to support the swing arm, removed the shocks, jacked up the swing arm until the axel was above the bag supports then made a bar as ChrisJ shows in his writeup to keep the axel above the exhaust and bag supports.  I then pulled the axel the caliper and spacer and started jacking up the bike.  Took a little fiddling to get the drive flange to clear the final drive but once it did I jacked the bike up quite a ways the tilted the tire out to the side.  I used the axel jack to put the tire on, just jacked it up into place.

[Tfrank59]

Yes I'm using the same HF jack, with the Valk adapter, and it works good. Takes some practice to control the descent, as someone has said, and as someone else said be sure and test the thing for strength – look over the welds and make sure all the bolts are in good shape – and when you first jack up your bike, as somebody said, only lift it a couple inches and make sure that the jack can handle it before you go higher.  I believe it's kind of a roll of the dice with Harbor freight Jacks if the hydraulic jack itself has good seals and will work for a while.

[hubcapsc]

There's a lot of ways to go about it.

I probably wouldn't even think about taking the rear fender section off
if I had an Interstate, but it comes off of a STD/Tourer easily. And shocks,
too.

I can sink the bike down on the jack to get the axle over the swingarm... going
to arbitrary heights like this on these jacks, instead of going to one of the locked
positions, would be dangerous without some other method of locking the jack...
that's what the board jambed in the scissors is for.



Here's how I deal with the swingarm when the wheel and the shocks are off...



It's easy to work in here... I like easy more than I like quick...



-Mike

[Mr.BubblesVRCCDS0008]

My craftmans lift descend was too quick so I drilled a hole and put a stop bolt under the lever  that I adjusted until the descend could be controlled real slow to make replacing axle and or shock bolts very easy to line up. it has a foot lever not sure about the harbor freight lift.

[peter]

Thanks Boys - much appreciated. Haven't removed the rear before, but there is a lot of info here and elsewhere so I'm going to give it a shot. Thanks for your help.
Peter
'98 Jade Greener

[h13man]

Well hubcapsc I like your idea very much. I was thinking of shock removal but lowering it below the exhaust like I did my VT1100. Any thoughts? I use on the front wheel a locking wheel chock with a "outrigger" attached and my engine hoist on rear with lifting straps threaded thru the frame @ the battery box section. My engine hoist has been my go to bike lifter for 9 yrs. now.

[Bighead]

too fast descent? don't push the pedal all the way down. I have the HF Jack and just push the pedal partially and it will go down slow as you want.
also I find it easier just to jack it up high enough to take wheel off without taking rear fender off,and much less chance of scratching up the paint on the fender.JMHO

[hubcapsc]

Well hubcapsc I like your idea very much. I was thinking of shock removal but lowering it below the exhaust like I did my VT1100. Any thoughts? I use on the front wheel a locking wheel chock with a "outrigger" attached and my engine hoist on rear with lifting straps threaded thru the frame @ the battery box section. My engine hoist has been my go to bike lifter for 9 yrs. now.

People here sometimes say bad things about dropping the swingarm too low... maybe
they just warn about spinning the wheel with the swingarm dropped -  something about
working the ujoint while it is in a bind. Something to think about...

Frank Smoak always hoists his Valkyrie, never jacks it up, so you're not the only one
who likes to do it that way...

All those ideas of "mine" come from here  ... Daniel Meyer takes off the rear
fender section, and I'm pretty sure he takes off the shocks, right there in front of
everyone each year at the InZane tech session... Chrisj made a "hang bar", a piece
of flat stock of the right length with two holes in it that he uses the way I use
the turnbuckle... I've put eight or ten rear tires on my Valkyrie and I've tried
all the different ways people have talked about here, and settled on what
works for me. When you take the rear fender section off, you only have to
jack the bike just barely high enough that the wheel's not touching anymore,
I like that.

-Mike

[hubcapsc]

too fast descent? don't push the pedal all the way down. I have the HF Jack and just push the pedal partially and it will go down slow as you want.
also I find it easier just to jack it up high enough to take wheel off without taking rear fender off,and much less chance of scratching up the paint on the fender.JMHO

My crappy old worn out Sears jack would drop like a bag of cement if I mashed on the pedal... I
tap on it to get the bike to come down as slow as needed...

-Mike

[h13man]

So hubcapsc whats your eye to eye distance on the turn buckle?

[hubcapsc]

So hubcapsc whats your eye to eye distance on the turn buckle?

Ida know... you could estimate it from that picture... the beauty of it being a turnbuckle
is that I can twizzle it until it is "the right length" each time I use it...

Now that I have two bikes, it has been almost a year and a half since I
used it  and there's plenty of wear left...

One of the awesome things about the new bike: no fiddling around with calipers,
swingarms, final drives, pinion cups... take off some nuts and the wheel falls
off... have to jack it up higher, though... I got a sturdy stiff new aluminum jack
for that...



-Mike

[h13man]

Well the turn buckle setup and the cherry picker done a very fine job! Thanks again for the ideer.  

[westnek]

There's a lot of ways to go about it.

I probably wouldn't even think about taking the rear fender section off
if I had an Interstate, but it comes off of a STD/Tourer easily. And shocks,
too.

I can sink the bike down on the jack to get the axle over the swingarm... going
to arbitrary heights like this on these jacks, instead of going to one of the locked
positions, would be dangerous without some other method of locking the jack...
that's what the board jambed in the scissors is for.

hi hubcaps -west here-the board is great idea in the jack, I don't trust the locks and I remove my rear piece of  fender also  but the board seems good SO where do you lay the board ?it isn't  to clear in pic AND I suppose it holds  ok ? I like that idea lifting only  what is needed ==thanks so much  west:::



Here's how I deal with the swingarm when the wheel and the shocks are off...



It's easy to work in here... I like easy more than I like quick...



-Mike

[hubcapsc]

I just put the bike at the height I want it to be at and then
jamb the board in the scissors... unless your jack's hydraulics
are slap worn out, it will stay where you put it at least long
enough to get the board in there... my bike has sat with
the board in the scissors as the only lock for a couple
of weeks before, I think it works great.

Don't forget to move the board out when you go to
lower the bike - D'OH! ... but that's never caused me
a problem either, I just pump it back up an little and
the board is loose again...

-Mike

[cogsman]

I've got the bike up and the axle is below the exhaust. I am trying to get the damn thing out but it simply will not pull out. I have it 70% of the way but can't seem to get it out the rest of the way. The wheel has separated from the final drive...

I am trying to lift it while someone else pulls but it's just not working. Is there some trick to this that I'm missing?

FYI the axle is not jammed in place due to the wheel being loose. I am lifting the wheel so that the axle can be turned quite freely. But when you go to yank outwards... nothing!

Any help would be appreciated.

Also I have only the one lift. Nothing else.

[peter]

Man, I didn't have this problem - I used a long rachet extension to tap the axle out from the opposite side.  Sounds like it may be hanging up on the "floating" spacer inside the wheel.  Maybe push the axle all the way in to line things up and then tap it out.

[cogsman]

I'm doing the ratchet extension thing too. That's how i got it out this far. I guess I just keep tapping away?

[RDKLL]

I had that problem and someone else mentioned it...the item in the guys hand has shifted and will cause it to hang up. If I would have listened to my own advice of stopping a job before I get started if anything like "this will be easy" or "I will be done in 20 minutes". And I dont even have to drop the swing arm because I have a short exhaust and it took me most of the afternoon

[h13man]

Keeping the wheel assembly somewhat perpendicular/level makes thing go alot easier thus having the axle above the exhaust allows more room to use a floor jack/blocking or whatever to assist us "DIY" folks. And yes it took me 4 hrs. to put mine back together with brake pad change but cheaper than $70 to let my shop do it especially being strapped for funds @ the present.

[cogsman]

I had that problem and someone else mentioned it...the item in the guys hand has shifted and will cause it to hang up. If I would have listened to my own advice of stopping a job before I get started if anything like "this will be easy" or "I will be done in 20 minutes". And I dont even have to drop the swing arm because I have a short exhaust and it took me most of the afternoon

Ok... so let's say that thing shifted and caused the axle to hang up... how to correct it?

[hubcapsc]

fiddle with it until you can get the pins to go back
in the holes... even if the axle comes out, I don't
think you're going to get the wheel to come out
with the flange cockeyed in there...

Screwing around with a pulled-out-flange is
one of the things that makes me glad my bike
is barely jacked off the ground...

-Mike

[CoachDoc]

For those advocating just tapping the descent pedal on the HF lift to slow the descent, I think you have it backwards. The instructions clearly state that the slowest descent is obtained by pushing the pedal to its fullest depressed position quickly and firmly. Sounds counterintuitive, but mine works just that way.......goes down nice and slow when I'm firm and quick on the pedal. Anything else and the descent is a bit scarey.