How To: Remove Front/Rear wheel, Adjust Chain Slack, Align Rear Wheel All with PICS!!

Posted By BrandonClaps on R6MESSAGENET.com

Well because I love you guys so much and I've learned alot of different stuff on this board,

I thought since I tackled this job, I might as make a How To on it ;D So here it goes!
All this was done on an 2002 R6 so the socket sizes and torque specs are for that bike. You

may want to confirm just to make sure. If I have anything incorrect or would like me to add,

just let me know!

Tool Sizes = Bold
Torque Specs = Underlined


Remove Front Wheel

To remove the front wheel. Of course you need a front stand (which isn't picture because I

took these pictures after I was done.

1 - Remove the brake hose holder bolt (#1) with a 8MM socket. Snug
2 - Remove the 2 caliper mounting bolts (#2 and #3) with a 12MM socket. 29 ft/lbs

Remove the caliper and connect a zip tie to the upper hole where you just removed the

bolt, to hold the caliper up. Do not let it hang by the hose!
3 - Repeat on opposite side.



4 - Remove the wheel axle pinch bolt (#4) I believe its a 6MM hex bit. 14 ft/lbs


5 - While holding the wheel, remove the axle (#5). Take a 3/8" spark plug socket from

craftsman, remove the rubber boot inside and then use an extension to loosen it 52

ft/lbs
6 - When putting the wheel back on, just reverse the order and make sure to put grease on

the axle.




Remove Rear Wheel

To remove the rear wheel, it must be on a rear stand.

1 - Loosen the locknuts (#1), Use a 12MM open wrench. Loosen it goes all the way to

the right towards the adjust bolt (#2). Do on both sides. Snug
2 - Turn the adjusting bolts (#2) so they are all the way towards the front of the bike, the

locknuts will be right next to them. Use a 12MM open wrench. Doing this will give the

front wheel enough room to push foward to remove the chain. Do on both sides. Snug



3 - Remove the chain guard bolt (#3) with a 10MM socket. Snug Removing this

makes it easier to remove chain from sprocket.

4 - Remove the other chain guard bolt, its directly behind the rear set bracket (arrow)

with a 10MM open wrench. Snug Also remove the plastic philips clip, push

gently, only a 1/4 turn to take it off.




5 - Remove the caliper mounting bolts (#4 and #5) with a 6MM hex bit. 20 ft/lbs

Rest caliper on swing arm.

6 - Remove caliper bracket bolt (#6) with a 20MM socket. 29 ft/lbs

7 - Remove wheel axle nut, (#7) with a 32MM or 1¼ socket. 108 ft/lbs

8 - Push the rear wheel foward and pull the chain to the side, so if you were looking at the

bike from rear to foward, pull the chain to the left. While pulling the chain to the left

rotate the wheel slowly and the chain will come off the sprocket.

9 - Remove the wheel axle, make sure to lube when reinstalling.




Adjusting Chain Slack

To adjust chain slack, first make sure its on a rear stand, the chain is at its looses when

there is no weight on the rear tire.

1 - First take a ruler and place it on the swing arm so it can not move. Your going to first

want to pull down on the chain and mark where it comes to on the ruler. (1st picture)What I

do is pull the chain down and put the ruler so the chain is at 6".

2 - Keep the ruler in the same place and now push up on the chain(2nd picture), the distance

between the two marks is the slack. between 1.5" and 2.0"

3 - You may want rotate the rear tire and check the chain in a few different spots. If its

different in all different spots, your going to want to adjust the chain slack to the

tightest spot on the chain (least amount of slack)




4 - Loosen the axle nut, and caliper bracket bolt on the opposite side, (see above or below)

5 - If you need to adjust the slack at all, just loosen the locknut a little (#1), Use a

12MM open wrench and use the adjusting bolts (#2) until you get the correct amount of

chain slack. Snug






Rear Wheel Alignment

Since I couldn't really find a good place with instructions on how to align the rear wheel,

even the how to's with the string were not very detailed, so here is my version. Rear wheel

is on a stand, front will not be.

1 - Get string (not fuzy stuff) or fishing line. What your going to do is take about 20

feet, and your going to wrap it around the REAR tire/rim once and have it go towards the

front. Make sure its not in any grooves as this may mess up the measurments. Tie the pieces

of string to something that will not move and can keep the string taut.




2 - You first want to make sure both sides of the string are JUST touching the outter most

foward part of the tire. The (blue line) is the part of the tire that sticks out the most.

Make sure its just touching it.



3. Leave the tools or whatever you use to hold the string in place, if they are just

touching the outter most parts of the tire, you are perfect so far. Now you must measure

from the outter most of the front tire (blue line around tire) to the string, both on the

front part of the tire and on the rear(arrows).



3. Say the brake sides measurments of both front and back on the front tire must be the

same, and the clutch side measruments of both front and back on the front tire must be the

same. Brake and clutch do NOT had to match at this mount, just the front and back of each

side. Nudge the front tire until the measurements are the same.

4. Now that the measurements are the same, what your going to do now is find out which side

has more of a gap between the string and the front tire. Say your looking at your headlights

and the left side has more of a gap, what that means if you have to loosen the rear axle nut

(#1)32MM or 1¼ socket. 108 ft/lbs and the caliper bracket bolt (#2) 20MM

socket. 29 ft/lbs only loosen them enough for the rear tire to move backward and

foward, do not remove them.

5. Next your going to want to loosen the locknuts (#4)to the right of the rear axle nut. Use

the adjusting bolts (#3) to either push or pull the the rear tire in the direction you need.

Do not use the clutch side adjusting bolts, because this will mess up your chain slack.

pics? i can host them if you need me to

Originally Posted by moonrider

Please host some pictures to give us better understanding and confidence to this. :-(

What part do you need help with? Here is a write up for the front wheel I did:

How to: Remove front wheel '05

If you need help on the other two sections feel free to ask questions and I'm sure someone can help you out.