1981 550A2 Rear Brk Torque "Rod"

Hey,
Was looking over the A2 today, getting ready for new chain,sprockets,and tires.
Man sez closest tire to stock is 100/90-18. Sez tis a bit wider, but stock size no longer made.
I looked at the bike, it Has that size tire already.... AND I didn't notice before that there is only about 1/16in clearance between torque rod(channel-shaped strap) and rear tire. THIS Cant be right. All parts diagrams I look at show same configuration I have[(bolt,rod,lock washer, nut, cotter pin) X 2].
I place to use washers to space this out from frame/swingarm another 1/8th in or so. But I wonder...
DOES ANYONE ELSE have such a tight clearance at rear tire/torque rod?
nothing SEEMS damaged or bent.
Pardon my rambling. third shift worker awake 20 hrs so far.:blink:
Forgot to mention, though you know, this is drum brake.

This sounds oddly similar to the problem I just had with my 550LTD

We had noticed how tightly "sinched" down everything was to the swingarm, and come to find out, the dumbazz that had it before I bought it had the rear tire changed and in the process the bearing support spacer fell out and didn't get put back in which left excess space, hence the sinching down tooooo much. With in about 200-300 miles my bearing failed and my rear axle started to seize up!

You might want to look into this.....just a thought? this was the part I needed for mine...

42036:

SLEEVE,RR HUB L=33M/M

589656-001

Good luck!!

Rae;)

Rae, For grins, I stepped out & looked at the rear wheel of my kz550A2.. With a 110-18 tire I can slide my index finger between the brake stay arm & tire to the 2nd knuckle. (roughly 3/4"). some things I'd check... there are 3 externally acessible spacers at rear wheel, one at sprocket side (roughly 3/4" wide), 2nd, a stepped spacer between sprocket carrior & hub bearing, & 3rd a roughly 1 1/2" spacer between brake panel & r/h chain adjuster. if two ouside spacers are present & in proper locations, pull rear wheel & verify presence of sprocket carrior to hub spacer, ( they can drop out & be missed w/ tire changes ) luck G

Thank you Rae and Gane,
This seems like a good possibility, that one of these three spacers is missing, hopefully an outside one- since it seems 3/4" is likely what i need.
I thought it funny that they had the rear wheel misaligned, so far out of true that the rear brake didnt engage, but it didnt occur to me until i trued it that they had done so intentionally (likely to get the clearance from this torque link)
I'll get back over to my storage/garage tomorrow and look it over.
If anyone has time, a photo or two of the way these outside spacers are situated would help. Parts fiches and exploded veiws only seem to tell part of the story.