The Yamaha Road Star Warrior Forum

I have an '06 purchased used w/ 2k miles and it came with a 240 rear tire w/ a modified wheel by CI.  The previous owner just grind enough material off the insides of the swingarm to accomodate the wider wheel and tire leaving about 1-2mm to spare.  Had the bike for 4 months, 1000 miles now with no issues.  Recently I had to remove the rear wheel because the license plate bracket broke off and the plate rolled underneath the rear fender and wedged itself on the U part of the swingarm right infront of the shock absorber.  I did not make any adjustments upon reinstalling the wheel, however, I do not have a torque wrench, so just tighten it to what I think is 110 ft. lb. of torque.  My first ride (80 mostly highway miles)after the install was no problem.  The bike sat for a week before my second ride.  As I was pulling away from the driveway, I hear this scraping sound and quickly rode back to the house.  After inspection, I realize the wheel on the right side was scraping against the swingarm.  I've made several adjustment, even removing the wheel again to check for fitting issues, but without any success.  The clearence is fine with the axel nut loose, but once tighten, this will happen.  It's actually scraping on the right and sometimes the tire on the left.  What's interesting is when I roll the bike forward, it'd scrape in a certain spot, but when I roll it backwards, it doesn't scrape.  And sometimes it'll be the opposite where it'll scrape rolling back, but not forward.  The only cause maybe I tighten the axel nut so much so, that it ruin the bearings.  Any thoughts on this? 

If it was mine, I'd buy a stretched swing arm by one of the respectful companies here.  That surely doesn't sound like the correct way to fit a 240...

Be careful and maybe consider yourself luck that it's just rubbing and didn't crack in half on the interstate

I dont think it would be the bearings because the bearings and collar and spacers make one common sleeve. Over tightening would only strip the axle. It almost sounds like a bent axle. Also adjust your wheel with the rear brake braket nut loose.

 Over tightening will can crush or damage the bearings by pushing the spacers in to far thats why the specs say 110,extreme over tightening will stip the axle or nut.[*-)

could it be that the tire and rim are still to far forward ( needs to be adjusted back as if tightening the belt) ? altough you wouldnt want to over tighten the belt to get the clearance you need as this can cause problems too but i think i would be really concerned if this was a diy mod and not done correctly, if done correctly you should not be having these issues. good luck

jimmy2:

I dont think it would be the bearings because the bearings and collar and spacers make one common sleeve. Over tightening would only strip the axle. It almost sounds like a bent axle. Also adjust your wheel with the rear brake braket nut loose.

I'm getting to point where I want to just by a 240 swingarm and replace all the bearings.  I just don't want to spend that kind of money if I don't have to.

check to see if you have all the collers and spacers that should be in there

personally i dont think over tightening your axle bolt is causing this but i can tell you that even the diy mod even when done correctly still puts the tire real close to the arm, closer than i would want which is why i went with the 260 arm,

 I know this is gonna sound like a broken record,but you are sure you have both spacers in place?If you do my money is on a cooked bearing if you take her apart again look for metalic around the seals.

shadow670:

 I know this is gonna sound like a broken record,but you are sure you have both spacers in place?If you do my money is on a cooked bearing if you take her apart agai look for metalic around the seals.

 That wouldnt really be a good idea IMO you wouldnt be fixing the problem and may cause it to get worse and dangerous

RR4me:

[All the spacers/collars are in place.  I'm wondering if I can place an additional spacer/washer on either side of the wheel so that when I tighten the axel nut, it'll leave just enough spacing for the wheel to clear the swingarm?

The inside machined surfaces of the swing arm, although forgiving, are fabricated to the exact dimension of all the inner brg races and combined spacers/collars when preloaded (tightened/torqued). You can end up coining the inside of the arm by the eccentric load IMO. 

Based on your gallery photos i can see that you are running a 240 Dunlop Elite 3 and what looks to be a 8 1/2" weld-up whl which doesn't require much metal removal at all from the inside of the arm because it is a narrower profile tire than the Metzler.

Pull your wheel, get out your right angle grinder or Dremel and remove the metal where the wheel is rubbing. Making clearance for the Elite 3 tire isn't rocket science at all and can be done on the bike. Finish off with a rattle can. Here's a recent Topic: DIY 240 overall cost and here's how it's done with a Metler 240: CLICK HERE or HERE for on the bike

 If it didn't rub to begin with, sounds like you don't have the wheel in straight. Happened to me. Retension your belt and make sure the belt is running in the center of the pulley. Sounds like the right side needs to go forward just a touch to me. Good luck. Jim from Crown enlightened me on this prob. 

RR4me its sure sounds like one of you spacers may have fell off and maybe rolled somewhere out of sight. There are 2 spacers pushed into the outer seals and if you are not carefull one can wiggle off and you wouldnt even notice. On one of my mockup tries one of those spacers fell off and it misaligned the whole thing. I am not questioning your work but it seems it could be the possible problem.

This was one of my first 240 arms. Note the tire rub residue and the crack in the arm.......if I were you I would completely dismount the arm and flip it over and lay it on a flat surface and make sure it is square. The arm you are describing can not be square. It happens when the arm is taken out of the jig too soon after modification.