Truing 67-72 kid star wheel help please

[ryan]

What does people use as a wheel truing stand arbor when truing the 67-72 wheels? It only has one bearing in the hub. The changed is pretty weak opposite the hearing side. I guess I could cut down a front drum if I could find a bad one somewhere.

[TomL]

I had a rear wheel for a 1972 FX done recently. I asked the man who would be doing the work if he needed a drum with bearings, no was his answer. I called the shop in two weeks, yes its done. I have seen his truing stand and its a truing stand, nothing special about it.

[ryan]

I had a rear wheel for a 1972 FX done recently. I asked the man who would be doing the work if he needed a drum with bearings, no was his answer. I called the shop in two weeks, yes its done. I have seen his truing stand and its a truing stand, nothing special about it.

He must have had a v or roller bearings on the top of his stand. Did you check truness after the drum was put on? I found they change a lot from changing the drums around or just rotating the drums. I think and was confirmed that the drums need to be on and marked when truing. The drum is then dedicated to that wheel.
I paid a hundred bucks a wheel labor to get 3 laced and trued. All 3 has loose spokes and navigate have .281" diameter nipples with .235" flats. I would take them back, but they had them for 3.5 months. So I am out 3 bills and a 50 buck spoke wrench.

[tfburke3]

Maybe not an option but I like to tighten the laced wheel and hub to the drum,backing ,plate spacers ,everthing complete in the frame just as it goes on the bike for final assembly,minus the tire.Mark the hub to the drum .
True it up,remove and install tire and everything goes back together.
Tom

[ryan]

Tom,
That sounds like a great idea. I think I can do it on my truing stand, but if I cannot, I can sure do it on my bike. I sure hope I can get the swing of it so not to delay my build too long. I watched several truing videos on youtube by a guy named Tatro and one old video from Harley on truing spool hubs. Tatro explains the truing process very well in several videos. He has over 2500 Harley videos. So I am almost ready to start.
I just finished my truing stand arbors, one for the bike and one for the sidecar wheel. I have to make two pointers and then I am ready to start. I also have to take the nipple off of every spoke to lube the threads on all 3 wheels. They are Buchanan SS spokes and nipples. I called and talked with Mr. Buchanan and he is sending me lube free of charge
See, i had my wheels trued and not one of the rims were close to being true. They were even done by a Harley dealer, not far from me, that has been in business since the mid 1950's. It is what it is.

[tfburke3]

Hope it works out for you.Pointers work to get it close but I use two dial indicators with 2" face and a .100 sweep which makes it much easier.

Tom

[ryan]

The rims that are laced to the hubs that came off my bike are pretty old. They do not have the safety bead lock and do not have the pronounced bent in radius edge that goes against the tire. I need to look at them closer for marks.

I have one dial indicator with stand and will get another. Thanks again Tom!

[chuckthebeatertruck]

The rims that are laced to the hubs that came off my bike are pretty old. They do not have the safety bead lock and do not have the pronounced bent in radius edge that goes against the tire. I need to look at them closer for marks.

I have one dial indicator with stand and will get another. Thanks again Tom!

There's nothing particularly special about mid-star hubs -- and no, you don't have to true them with the drum. Like their predecessors, mid-stars are designed to be swapped front to rear. It's more important the flange and the studs aren't screwed up -- the drum is true -- and you don't have screwed up lugs.

As of truing -- I partially paid my way through college decades ago building wheels as so few people actually knew what they were doing -- and this ABSOLUTLY includes dealers. Today, it is very, very rare for dealers to build wheels -- so you likely got someone who was giving it a go but probably didn't really know what they were doing and just following a video or a FSM instruction.

No, you don't need ANY bearings to true a wheel if you're using conical arbors. They center on the ID of the bearing bore . . .and if that were off -- well so too would be your bearing.


And, it's cool if you don't want to take the word of a total stranger. Here's a few shots of me building a mid-star wheel . . .using a set of repo borrani 18" rims and sitting on the floor of my family room (it was cold outside in the shop) DSCI2306.jpg

Nothing special going on there. Just an el cheapo truing stand ($20), a rowe spoke wrench ($6), and two straight edges to measure offset. Dial indicators can cause you as much trouble as not-- a sharp pencil or sharpie held just off the high spot of the rim will quickly show you what needs adjusting and where. Yes, you can get more "precise" but until you really get a feel for how a wheel moves while being tensioned -- you can just as easily chase your tail for hours. For speeds up to about 100mph, you'd be surprised how "slack" you can be. And, really, it's not unusual to have to reset a rim after you mount a tire and after 200-500 miles of riding.

Steel rims are easier to true than alloy rims - but they all will do what you want eventually. Star and mid-star hubs are among the very easiest to lace wheels. Cross 4 and go. Take a look to the left and you'll see a 68 Triumph TLS hub laced to a 19" alloy --- that's a wee bit more of a pain.

[ryan]

Hello Chuck,
What a reply! I see the arbor is resting on bearings of your truing stand. My truing stand is an original Harley from long ago, which does not have bearings. I did find out the sidecar midstar is laced with the two inner rows in opposite direction and the bike huh has the inner rows running the same direction. Have no idea why the sidecar hub is different, but it is.
The Harley dealer old bikes all the time. He also does a lot of wheels, but he must have given it to someone else to work on as you mentioned. They had the spokes all bound up and the spokes were not seated in the hub.
I have the sidecar wheel ready for the truing stand and one wheel tore apart on one side. I just checked the nipples for galling and the spokes for straightness. Time to lube the threads and the spoke hole in the rim and repeat.
The original hubs are laced to older Kelsey Hayes rims. I found the mark on them.
I am also doing the wheels in the house and paid for part of my college buying and parting out Allis-Chalmers and Simplicity garden tractors. We should model this site after there website Simpletractors.com Super great site!
Thank you so much!
Ryan

[ryan]

Do you seat the spokes in the hub with a flat punch and hammer and re-tighten the spokes per Harley FL manual?

[shinedogg]

It's always seemed easier when you adjust the up & down first, then the side to side. Chucks right, no special tooling, just conical arbors. And patience.