I recently replaced my front tire. While I was putting everything back together I noticed the wheel is almost 1/2 inch off center with the fender. The brake disc just barely clears the fork. The wheel is all the way over against the speedometer gear housing and there is no room to move it over further. I suspect that a previous owner replaced the front wheel with the wrong size and I never noticed till now. Before I spend major $ on a new/used wheel, can anyone tell me the width of a STOCK front wheel for a GS500 (mine is a 1996 ET model). I need the measurement across the hub at the center of the wheel. No need to remove the wheel. Just lay a ruler across the hub at the base of the spokes and measure the width of the metal part of the wheel between the plastic hub covers. Any help will be greatly appreciated!

i'm horrible at making a mental picture from a description but all i know about front wheel measurements is that the rim is 3''. i would suspect that a spacer is installed wrong. justa guess though

It sounds like you are missing spacer #5 and or #6.  Check the image to see if you have all of the proper parts installed.

#2 and #6 go inside the forks so that isnt it. i would put my money on #5. if it isnt that then i would guess you have a different rim that stock.

I have all the parts that are in the diagram. I have a Haynes manual with a similar diagram. It shows a rim that is slightly different than mine. My slots for the speedometer gear (#9 in the diagram) are bigger than shown in the manual. This is mainly why I believe the rim is the wrong size. I need the measurement of the width of the rim between the plastic hub covers (#10 in the diagram). The part that the base of the spokes are attached to. Thanks.

I just went out and measured the front rim on my '99.  I butted the end of a ruler against the inside of the brake rotor and measured to the inside of the plastic hub cover on the left side.

The closest lines I could identify were at 3 9/16" on the English scale, and 90mm on the metric scale.

Thanks Kerry. Mine is about the same width. I must be doing something wrong. I will keep trying. Thanks everyone for all the help.

It should look like this (taken today) ...




... and this (taken when I replaced the front rotor a while back):

I suspect the speedometer housing is not seated completely. Loosen the axle and rotate the rim til the housing seats.

Ok, I have tried to reaasemble the wheel again. The speedo gear housing is between the wheel and the fork and is seated as completely as possible. Everything looks to be assembled correctly according to the above diagram and Kerry's pics except the small spacer that goes inside the fork (#6 in diagram) is sticking out about 1/4 inch further than shown in Kerry's pic. I still have only about 1/8 inch of clearance between the fork and the actual braking surface on the disc (even less on the round things that stick out from the disc, they just barely clear the fork). When I put the brakes on you can hear metal scrubbing the disc. I can see where two places on the caliper behind the outboard pad are rubbing the disc. I think this is because the disc is to close to the right fork. How much clearance should there be between the fork and the disc surface?

Quote from: smokeybearHow much clearance should there be between the fork and the disc surface?

Here's mine: