Front Fork Space to rear required???

I replaced my front dust boots on the shocks and when I put on the front tire I noticed the axle clamps have a little space between them and the bottems of the shock tubes. I tightend the nuts according to what the book said. Is this normal.I made sure that the space(1mm front and back) was equal on each side of the axle clamps and the arrow on them points to the front. Seals are both good the dust boots were old and crack. previous owner replaced the seals and not the boots...Dumb. I like to do complete replacements so I know what I've got.

normally space goes towards rear

should it be to the rear. or will it hurt to leave it the way I put it? I thought even would be better so you have even tightness on both nuts.

You can still have the same torque on both nuts with the space to the rear. Roy

PLUMMEN wrote:

normally space goes towards rear

Yes. On the axle clamps, gap is supposed to be only at the rear, with no gap at the front.

On each end of axle, should first tighten the front nut (no gap), and then tighten the rear nut (gap).

Good Luck!