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Tire Removal

3176 Views 14 Replies 11 Participants Last post by  kellenbenz
Anyone have step by step instructions on how to remove and reinstall the front and rear tires on the LT? Torque spec's etc... Tricks....

Bought a No-Mar changer and going to attempt my first change on the LT. Local dealer wanted $100 for installation - in addition to the tires. Even with the dealers 10% off the tire price I saved over $115 online. Then add in taxes, well over $220 saved. (it wont take long to pay for the changer at that rate).

Anyone in Iowa needing tires changed and want to help me break in the changer feel free to email me. Only cost - conversation and meal :)

Tom
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Plasterman said:
Anyone have step by step instructions on how to remove and reinstall the front and rear tires on the LT? Torque spec's etc... Tricks....

Bought a No-Mar changer and going to attempt my first change on the LT. Local dealer wanted $100 for installation - in addition to the tires. Even with the dealers 10% off the tire price I saved over $115 online. Then add in taxes, well over $220 saved. (it wont take long to pay for the changer at that rate).

Anyone in Iowa needing tires changed and want to help me break in the changer feel free to email me. Only cost - conversation and meal :)

Tom
Here is a tutorial on the front tire removal process. A search on some keywords should bring up the rear wheel/rim removal procedure also. Good luck.
On the rear start with the outer bolts (zig zag pattern) and torque to 50 Nm. Then torque the center to 105 Nm follwed by the outers to 105 Nm. Make sure you have the spacer ring on the wheel. I put a few dabs of silcone seal on mine to make it "stick" in place to the wheel.
Invest in a Clymer (or similar) shop manual for your LT. Lots of good details there. I referred to it just last night as we were replacing the rear tire, to get those 50 Nm/105 Nm torque settings John mentioned above. :)

Here is the Clymer manual for your bike; you'll want to confirm your model year, etc.
hschisler said:
Invest in a Clymer (or similar) shop manual for your LT. Lots of good details there. I referred to it just last night as we were replacing the rear tire, to get those 50 Nm/105 Nm torque settings John mentioned above. :)

Here is the Clymer manual for your bike; you'll want to confirm your model year, etc.
+ 1 on what Howard said. I would never work on any vehicle with out a manual.
Rim Removal

I guess I should had said Rim removing? Any tips on removing the front and rear rims from the bike? Back tire seems easy. Front? What is the sequence and torque spec's

Tom
Re: Rim Removal

Plasterman said:
I guess I should had said Rim removing? Any tips on removing the front and rear rims from the bike? Back tire seems easy. Front? What is the sequence and torque spec's

Tom
I just did a search on rear wheel rim and front wheel rim removal and found many pages of info - Here is one that you should read thru, but there are many others. Good luck.

BTW - a small booklet for Rider and Technical information originally came with each LT - if you find those booklets, there is detailed info about tire/rim changing there. Also, there is a torque value post in the HoW forum that lists all the torque numbers for the LT - a quick search on 'torque values' should bring that info up.
Ok but get a manual.

Remove the front calipers from the forks and support them (don't hang on the hose). Undo the front fender (not necessary but it helps). Undo the axle nut and loosen the pinch bolts. Pay attention to the orientation of the spacers. Smear a little gease on the axel shaft. On re-install torque the axle nut to 30 Nm then bounch the forks a few times to settle the fork tubes and torque the pinch bolts to 21 Nm. Then reinstall the front calipers torque to 40 Nm for 99-2001 (Brembo units) and 30 Nm for BMW units 2001 on. Oh and make sure you put the wheel back on correctly with the ABS ring next to the ABS sensor. Then look at the arrow on the tire and curse when you find you installed the tire backwards.
To John's advice of, "On re-install torque the axle nut to 30 Nm then bounch the forks a few times to settle the fork tubes", I'll add--don't squeeze the brakes when you do this. Remember you haven't reattached the calipers.

I go out of sequence and reattached the calipers before I take the bike off the center stand and bounce it. You don't have brakes until you power the system on, but at least you won't blow out the caliper pistons.

I mark the direction of rotation on the rim with a magic marker as a reminder.
jkersh1 said:
I mark the direction of rotation on the rim with a magic marker as a reminder.
Another way to tell is to make sure the ABS ring is on the left side to mate with the sensor.
This is embarrassing but I'm gonna ask, when i did all of this, (unbolt fender, calipers, axel, etc) and went to drop the rim/tire, for the life of me i couldn't get the rim past the calipers! So i went to the section to remove the calipers and it wanted to remove the banjo bolts and fluid............Screw that!

tried for 15 minutes, finally i decided to just take off the dang disk brakes. couldn't believe it was this difficult but i went ahead with it.

Can anyone shed some light on why i couldn't get past the calipers? or has anybody had this problem?

Thanks for all!
:) YOU DO NOT NEED TO unplug the brake hoses from the calipers or release disks when removing those. Front wheel: Tight fit but calipers will come out after releasing those 2 bolts. You just have to yank them and thus press the pistons / pads in to give room to bend the caliper out. Trust me - they will come out :wave Patience, patience....

So all you need to do is to open those two bolts...
Another really great feature of this forum, at the bottom is a section called Similar Threads.

A lot of times the answer to a question, if you don't want to do a search, is there....
Thanks C-A-D and Dan,

Went into is thinking it was that easy but ran out of time. Oh well, live and learn I guess!

Thanks again for the tips!
Getting the calipers out from the rim requires you to twist the caliper on the rotor to push the pistons back in and allow you to lift the caliper out at and angle.

Lift the caliper slightly, then rotate the top of it outward. It takes some pressure for the pistons to go in and give you clearance.

Ron
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