Rear Wheel is killing me

[BoltsMissing]

No real need to grind anything, it eventually fits.

My take on this is to first smear the rubbers with rubber grease, including the bolt holes on the rubbers.

If you have the 3 plate type, put one bolt on each plate starting at centre bolt hole. Finger tight ( firm-take-up-slack) for now.
I don't use the lock nuts or fibre nuts, it gives a false impression of tightness.
I use ordinary nuts so to have a better feel when tightening for allignment and further fine adjustments.
When you have all 9 threaded, mark a 1 and start finger tight/firm from 1, 3 , 5 and so on. So in effect you firm one bolt, miss the next and go the next.
Cos it's 9 holes, you'll get to 2 cos it will leap-frog 1, keep rotating tightneing up the slack as you go.

As far as the plates not spreading, as mentioned use a screwdriver to push them apart. Once in place while finger tightning, it will even out.
Eventually it gets tighter, but keep rotating and evenly tightning.
Once it's all done, then put on the fibre nuts and lock to the first nut using the 2 spanner method.
Patience is key!

However, I'm done with these rubbers and plates to.
I think the newer option using a hub adapter is the way to go these days.

 

[RedBaronX]

With mine, the three plates overlapped, and it didn't seem to cause any problems. I think I spent four hours total truing the wheel before I was finally satisfied that it was as straight as humanly possible.

Definitely replace the bolts and nuts with the highest grade they carry at the hardware store.

As someone else mentioned, tighten them down GRADUALLY and in a star pattern. That will help keep everything true and even.

I am on my second build after the frame of my first bike cracked. I am using a Worksman frame with Worksman wheels. When I took the stock rag-joint sprocket off the wheel of my first bike, there were two broken spokes, broken within where the rag joint gets clamped to the wheel. That's a big pile of Not Good.

I bought the Manic Mechanic rear sprocket clamp and a Pirate Cycles sprocket instead of using the stock rag-joint sprocket after seeing the broken spokes. (While the Worksman wheel uses 11 gauge spokes and my old bike had 14 gauge spokes, I don't want to have to deal with broken spokes again.

 

[Big Red]

Rear Wheel

motorpsycho and Boltsmissing are pretty much right about everything. The only thing I might disagree with, (Sorry Moto,) is overlapping the plates. The plates are meant to but up against each other to keep them in place. Just use that screwdriver and make the plates obey you. Snugging the nut's, but not too tight, will help hold them in place while you do this.
I use my wheel truing station to get the sprocket true'd also. You can make a quick, cheap one out of a old, thin type front fork. One that you can widen' out to fit a rear wheel. It makes it easy to observe the sprocket wobble in both directions. To adjust the backforthbackforth action, use a small peice of wood(2x4?) on the sprocket between the sprocket and a hammer. NEVER hit the sprocket with just a hammer. You can adjust a slightly tighter sprocket this way and it will stay in place better as you finish tightening it. THEN, just before you go for the finale "tightening" check the in and out wobble. You can use the last few turns of the wrench to adjust it in. The places where it is too far in already won't need quite as much tightening. I know the supplier that sold you the kit claimed it will install in a couple of hours. I've spent at least that much time on just a stubborn sprocket, so just take some time with it and do it right the first time. That's always how I do it becouse I'm a lazy old coot and I hate doing things twice.
Big Red.

 

[motorpsycho]

I never said tighten bolts as you go around. I said tighten in a cross pattern. But put the bolts on initially any way you like cos you only put them on 2 turns so you can adjust the sprocket before it gets too tight. I've never had a bolt break - the force on each bolt is minimal because the rubber sandwich bears the torque forces. I agree a clamshell sprocket fix is ideal but they don't fit on geared coaster hubs or many hubs for that matter.
I use a clamshell if I can and the rubbers if I can't. I can get the rubber method pretty accurate - as accurate as a clamshell but bear in mind that all of these sprockets are not exactly round and neither are chainrings on the pedal cranks exactly round. That is how it has always been. I have had the rubber perish after 3 or 4 years but I haven't had the bolts coming loose because I don't overtighten them. If you overtighten them they will come loose and the sprocket will have more wobble from the start and the fix will not be as good as it should be. Experience is the best teacher I find. Same with truing wheel.
I make my own clamps for the big Shimano Nexus multi-geared hubs and they are pretty good if I install them myself using the method I described above. Never had one fail yet but if your hub can take a machined alloy clamp onto the hub itself then use that but no sprocket wheel is exactly round and chain tightness will vary - the key is to minimise the amount of up/down hopping during installation. Minimising the wobble is similar to truing a wheel and there's a bit of a science to it.

I know john, i didn't mean that you suggested to just tighten the bolts as you go around.
I was just re-referancing the cross pattern method of tightening the bolts.

 

[BoltsMissing]

pics might help...

If I would change anything, just for the cosmetics of the build, I'd use dome allen key bolts rather than the standard bolts.

Wider flat washers on the nut side seems to offer more even coverage.

Point is, no grinding of the plates was ever required, just get a screwdriver and force it apart, watching the end of the plates as you tighten. If it looks like it's ( ends of plates) going to slip, move on the the next one, and so on.

<<<<Not part of this topic, but I've posted the thumbnail (shrunken) pics and raw pic format. Was curious to see how it looks.>>>

I guess for this topic, a close up view explains it clearer.

 

[Irish John]

In the early days of the 4 strokes we didn't know which sprocket size worked best so having to try different sprocket sizes gave me good practice at getting the sprockets set up. Then I'd break spokes on the left side and would have to remove the sprocket to replace it and over time I got much better at it and much quicker.Now I can put a sprocket on in 35 minutes. There's little short cuts that you learn over time. On a heavy steel bike I have learn to replace the spokes with DT Swiss because they are very unlikely to break. I buy them in packs from Chain Reaction on line (a great Northern Irish company I'm proud to say) and they cost Aus $14 for 37 with brass nipples as opposed to $2.50 each from my local bike shop. The Taiwanese s'steel spokes often have brittle batches and if your bike has those you soon know about it. The Chinese s'steel spokes are even worse. The 12guage galv steel spokes on the Grubee GT1 and the wheels are actually very good value indeed. Galv steel is stronger than stainless. Pity about the rest of the bike. If you take the rather ineffectual rear coaster brake off the Grubee rear wheel you can slide the standard sprockets over the threaded hub and a couple of threaded washers are all you need to fix it in place. As you cycle the sprocket tightens itself even more which makes for a really easy fixing. Those bikes have a rear V-brake so the coaster brake was never really necessary anyway.

 

[fanatic]

I was able to get all of the plates lined up without any grinding, but I made a big mistake. I lined the pads up wrong. I put both pads on the inside of the spokes instead of one in and one out. Now I will have to pull everything apart again. Thanks to BoltsMissing for posting the pictures. Now I can do it right.

 

[motorpsycho]

I was able to get all of the plates lined up without any grinding, but I made a big mistake. I lined the pads up wrong. I put both pads on the inside of the spokes instead of one in and one out. Now I will have to pull everything apart again. Thanks to BoltsMissing for posting the pictures. Now I can do it right.

before you take it all back apart, put the wheel on the bike and check your chain alignment (chain from the engine to the rear sprocket.
it may be fine the way it is because sometimes when you have a rubber on the inside and a rubber on the outside, it may push the sprocket too far out and make your chain alignment wrong. every oncew in awhile there's a case where you can't put a rubber on the outside (between the sprocket and the spokes) because the sprocket will be out too far.
you can also flip the sprocket over if the alignment is off as well.
i know it's a pain, but it takes time to get it right, and chain alignment is VERY important.
the instructions are useless in this department because no 2 rear sprockets will go on exactly the same way.
just like so many other aspects of building one of these, a lot of it is trial and error.

 

[tommer2]

For gosh sakes guys get the MM hub adaptor!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Put it on,10 minutes, lock tight and FORGET about it!!!!!!!!!!!!! PERFECT alinement. I,ve NEVER had a problem!

 

[fanatic]

The rear wheel is adjusted and lined up. I did the sprocket with the bottom of the dish toward the hub, then the rubber on the outside of the spokes. I have another set of rubber on the inside of the spokes with both sets of metal brackets. Everything lined up when I started tightening the bolts.

I will be getting the MM hub adapter when I start upgrading the bike. I am trying to do everything right now as cheap as possible. I will start a build thread in the next couple of days.

Thanks for all of your input.