Aligning front axle 81 KZ1100

Alright guys long story short I pulled my forks apart to rebuild them and discovered my lower triple was bent in the process. I replaced the lower clamp and the forks with an excellent used set off ebay. Note I did not swap out my top clamp(I'm not sure if that is acceptable or where I messed up). Forks went together beautifully,slipped into both clamps smoothly,lined up perfectly by eye. So here I am putting the axle back through the front wheel. It slides through pretty easily but seems to have more space between the forks than I recall when I disassembled them. From in front of the bike should I slide the axle through the wheel until the speed sensor bottoms out against the fork and then clamp the left side on what is left of the pin sticking through? Or should a specific amount of the axle be sticking out ? I have it together and it rolls smoothly but I am concerned the forks being farther apart than originally means I have something out of alignment or perhaps should have used the matched triple clamps. I believe I put the spacer against the left fork and used the nut to pull the fork in to the speed sensor and now I'm concerned I'm going to ruin another set of forks in the long run. I dont have a lot of experience on motorcycles so figured I would ask the guys that would know the norms when reassembling the wheel. So what do you guys think?

Should look like this from each side:

A pic would help.
Steve

SWest wrote: A pic would help.
Steve

Great minds...

:lol:

When I get home I'll back the axle nut off and take a pic. It looks like daveo's pic now but I used the axle nut to clamp the forks together, and that's why I'm concerned. I dont know If that is normal or if it should have all lined up off the bat.

Upper fork holder. I don't know if this checks works on the KZ1100. The front end of my 81 KZ650 was akilter & I found that the upper triple was bent. I checked it on a glass table & it rocked quite a bit when pushing down on a corner; the replacement only moved a tad.



....

The top clamp did not seem bent but I dont recall putting my level to it. The bottom was clearly bent and was visible to the eye once removed from the bike.

I guess that's the question I'm really getting at. Is some space at the end of the forks normal and should just be pulled in. It had about .5-.75 of an inch of gap between the fork and speed sensor. Or does this indicate I still have a problem?

Pictures as requested. Although while taking these pictures I believe I have discovered the forks are in fact crooked still. Sticking my calipers between the forks and tightening them down then sliding it up the fork tubes causes it to be pushed out as I travel up so either the top clamp or a tube is bent.

I guess this is a classic case of I just needed somewhere to think out loud to work out the problem. Guess I'll get to tearing this front end back apart and see if i can find the culprit

With the bike on the locked center-stand, and the fork clamp bolts loose, spin each upper fork tube and note any change of the lower relative to the wheel at the axle.
If no change, then most likely the fork tubes are straight, and the triple tree is at fault.
I'd try this, but maybe there's a better suggestion or two.

If one clamp is bent chances are the other is too. Turning the fork tubes is a good test.
Steve

Case closed. After all these years of buying things on ebay you would think I would have learned my lesson by now. If I had checked these pristine looking tubes before I installed them I would have easily seen this small bend in one of the tubes and had this fixed 24 hours ago. I guess now all that's left is to use one of my old tubes and message this seller about the rating I'm about to give him after he promised me in messaging both of these tubes were straight. I appreciate the feedback guys. I just needed someone to confirm the forks should have sat flush against the wheel and I wasn't insane for wanting to pull the whole thing back apart again lol