Front wheel out of alignment with handlebars

Another development in my KZ550 resurrection project!

My handlebars are out of alignment with my front wheel. I don't know the history of the bike, but minor damage on the left side of the motorcycle indicates that the bike was probably in a crash at some point.

I tried to realign the wheel by using the method shown in this Delboy's Garage video , where everything below the upper clamps are loosened and you push down on the upper triples to straighten everything out. This didn't work.

Next, I had a buddy come over to hold the front wheel in between his legs. With the steering stem nut loose and everything south of the upper clamps loose, I twisted the handlebars into alignment with the front wheel and tightened the steering stem nut tight. The moment I released tension from the handlebars it went back into misalignment

The front wheel isn't bent, and the forks were just rebuilt by me and are in great condition. There is no evidence of frame damage. I'm thinking the triple tree uppers or lowers must be bent. Further evidence of this is that I really had to muscle the left fork into the triple tree after my fork rebuild. The upper and lower really didn't line up very well.

What do you all think of this?

Put the upper triple clamp on a flat surface. You should be able to see or measure the difference in height of the outer clamps.
Steve

Are the fork tubes straight? On mine, I remember loosening the clamps then grabbing the tubes and slowly rotating them and seeing if the wheel alignment changed. I was able to "align" the tubes to get the best handlebar centering.

Not good, bountyhunter. If you have to rotate your fork to 'align' it , then something is definatley not right . Like swest says check your upper clamp on a flat surface. In fact do your lower clamp as well and everything else until you find whats bent.Driving around with bent bits on your front end isnt a good idea.

davido wrote: Not good, bountyhunter. If you have to rotate your fork to 'align' it , then something is definatley not right .

Yeah, I never said it was good. But if you have a slight bend in the tubes, you can rotate them to "synchronize" the way they are pointing and straighten the front wheel. Anyway, worked for me and was an easy fix.

As long as the handlebars and wheel looks straight and the front tire shows no unusual wear, I am a happy rider. :laugh:

My forks were slightly bent for years. I'd rotate them so the front end would be streight but in the wrong place, the seals would leak. Got some new ones at Z1E and it's all better now. A bent front end could cause a high speed wobble. The Z1's are prone to that and a faulty front end could be a killer.
Nothing to trifle with.
Steve

What he says.

Something is bent. I had the same problem and found that the left fork tube was bent. I thought that would take care of the problem but it was still out of alignment after the new parts. After further inspection, I found that both the top clamp and the lower clamps were tweaked. Put the clamps on a sheet of glass to see if they rock at all. If they do, they're bent.

I didn't notice the alignment issue until I took it all apart to do fork seals. The previous owner forced everything over and tightened it all up to hide the problem. I guess I fell for it...

My front wheel was akilter like that --- the upper triple was bent. I checked it on a glass table by pushing down on a corner --- it rocked quite a bit. The replacement only moved a tad.

It doesn't take much.
Steve

That is true. I don't recall if my wheel was that crooked, but it was clearly off.
I was expecting other stuff to be bent, but it was just the upper triple.

Other checks: the fork tubes could be rolled on a glass table or other flat surface. Or a drop test might work: remove the main fork springs & other stuff at the top and dump out the oil, then raise/extend the upper tubes to the max, then let them drop. If they're bent, they might stick or fall at different rates. Do the test w fork seals in place. I used the test to compare the old dust boots to new: the new ones gripped better, so the tubes dropper more slowly. I guess the test would work for bent forks. ???

Yup, looks like front end accident damage to me, had exactly the same on a stolen recovered 550.

Forks and yokes need sorting, I think it is possible to straighten slightly bent tubes. The front wheel was also out of true,