Removing rear wheel?

[AlfromNH]

I'm trying to remove the rear wheel. This picture might be worth a few dozen words if not a thousand:


The tire is hitting the left side of the swingarm, and the right side is nowhere close to clearing the brake shoes.

The tire is a 4.50x18, and I'm assuming it's too wide. But how the heck do I get the wheel out? Dismantle the final drive?  :-/

[Bob_Roller]

Deflate the tire, remove the valve core, that should help you out .

[AlfromNH]

I pulled the valve core and put a clamp on the tire to squeeze it narrow, but haven't gotten enough room yet. The tire is quite stiff.

[Semper Gumby]

Work it side to side. Put some dish soap and water on the rubber to make it slippy.  If you are going to get rid of old rubber get a knife and cut some rubber off the side.

Then again removing the final drive from the swingarm is an option.

[Barry]

Rear wheel removal can be difficult at the best of times even with 4.00 tires. You have the rear fender off. Nothing much else you can do except squeeze the tire. Maybe try warming the tire to make that easier and use some form of lubricant as long as it doesn't get on the brake shoes. Is the left shock in the way in respect of keeping the wheel dead vertical ?

[montmil]

Along with deflating the tire, I have pulled the lower bolt on the left-side shock.

[AlfromNH]

It looks like the splines on my final drive are pretty worn. So if I'm going to be removing the final drive anyway, I might as well do it now.

[Tony Smith]

I am amazed that a 4.50 went in there in the first place, I took the cheats way out and bent the left hand side of the swing-arm out to fit a slightly too big (can't remember the metric numbers) rear tyre to my wife's bike in an emergency.

To get that one out I'd beg/borrow/buy a large set of what we call "multigrips" (known elsewhere in the world as "water pump pliers", slip-joint stilsons", "metric-all size" and various other names. Position the wheel as near as you can to "out" and then start squeezing the tyre above and below the "pinch points".
 
Trust me, this will take a while, but it will work. Or, you could slip a large 6' section of water pipe over the left hand side of the swing arm with the shock removed and bend it outward until you have sufficient clearance. To bend it back - fit rear axle and use a 5lb hammer and a block of timber to move the LFS of the swing arm back into position.

Do not stress that you will damage anything doing this, you won't.

The LHS of the swing arm s largely there as a mount of the LHS shock sand does not contribute very much to the overall strength of the swing arm.

I have taken a stock R65 swing arm, cut the LHS off about 4" rear wards of the pivot and fitted an R80GS final drive. Put the whole confection into a frame that a friend was building up (Cagiva elefant front end, R100 engine, R75/7 frame with mono-shock mount grafted on and Monolever subframe.

He rode the 7 deserts of Australia on that bike, and it failed to break.

[AlfromNH]

I don't understand how this tire got installed either. There's barely enough clearance for the bare rim!

I never would have considered bending the swingarm, and despite your assurances I'm still reluctant to do so. I think I'll just remove the final drive. And buy a new tire that actually fits.  

[Semper Gumby]

It looks like the splines on my final drive are pretty worn. So if I'm going to be removing the final drive anyway, I might as well do it now.

If you are going to the trouble to replace the splines make sure that you also replace the ones on the rear wheel as well.  Don't mix new with old.

[Tony Smith]

There are only two ways someone got it in there:-

1/. When the tyre was new it was very supple and it was forced in whilst deflated,or;

2/. The LHS of the swing arm was bent out enough to get it in and then bent back.

[georgesgiralt]

Hello
If the tire was put from under and non inflated, it could have cleared the shoe brake.
As I've a pit in the garage, I use this to remove/mount the rear wheel and it is quite a joy to do...

[Rob Valdez 79 R65]

You have the rear fender off.

My procedure was to tie off the center stand.
Remove the front wheel.
Tilt the bike forward on the front forks. (Don't leave it in this position long if you have a full tank of fuel)
Then deflate the rear tire and proceed to remove it.
Have a block of wood ready to place between the ground and the end of the rear fender when you bring the bike back to vertical.

It was ALWAYS difficult to remove the rear wheel for me.
Saddlebag carriers just add to the mix.

This is one area where the mono-shock bikes shine.  No R/W splines to worry about, and NO left-side swing-arm!

Along with deflating the tire, I have pulled the lower bolt on the left-side shock.

Yes, do that too.  I forgot about that.

[AlfromNH]

I hadn't thought to try to get it out from below. I have the bike almost completely stripped, so that should be quite manageable.

What a ridiculous design tho, it looks like there's barely enough room to get the bare rim thru that opening! All hail the monoshock!  

[Rob Valdez 79 R65]

It looks like the splines on my final drive are pretty worn. So if I'm going to be removing the final drive anyway, I might as well do it now.

If you are going to the trouble to replace the splines make sure that you also replace the ones on the rear wheel as well.  Don't mix new with old.

My final drive splines where worn past 1/2 on my bike back in the 90's.  (before internet forums).   Bob's (who outsourced the work) did not suggest sending in the wheel as well.
The splines on my wheel were like new.  I saw no reason to replace them.  Both were doing fine when I got rid of the stuff this year, with about 10 years of riding on it.