I've been working on the rear wheel of my '82 LS, just trying to understand what really needs to be done with this pre-load .
After digesting all of the information about it , here's a real quick explanation of what's being attempted .
On a front wheel, it's a bit easier than a rear wheel .
Remove the inner and outer seals, clean all of the grease from the bearings and the outer races .
Reassemble the bearing and spacer stack-up without the seals, insert this back into the wheel .
Insert axle and the spacer that goes on the left side between the wheel and left fork tube .
Tighten the axle nut to what ever torque it calls for .
Spray a light oil onto the bearings so they have a bit of lubricant and aren't dry .
Next take a spring scale and see how much force is required to move the wheel .
If the force required is too high, add a shim between the spacers that are between the bearings .
If the force required is too light, you need to remove shims if they are installed, if you don't have any shims to remove, you need to get another small spacer, they come .5mm increment differences in length (correction, the spacers come in .05 mm increment differences) .
Measure what you have and then subtract .05 mm to get the next size shorter .
After you have this done, you need to grease the wheel bearings, re-assemble the stack-up including the inner and outer seals, then reinstall the wheel on the bike, torque to specified value, which I think is around the 35 foot pound area .
A bit of information is left out of this explanation, but this is the basic idea of what needs to be done .