I'm having a heck of a time mounting an 05 rear cast wheel on my 02. The problem is the long spacer that runs down the inside middle of the wheel. On my 02 rear spoke wheel the inside spacer is lined up almost perfect so that the axle basically slides right in. On the 05 rear cast I try putting the axle thru and the spacer is dropped down enough to where it partially blocks the hole and I can't get the axle thru. When I compare the drawings for the 2 different years the two spacers look totally different even tho they have the same part number. Am I missing something here? Or is it just a real pain to get the axle thru on cast wheels? Should I swap the 02 spoke design spacer to the cast wheel?

I did the same swap on my 03 the spacer can be hard to line up. I had a drift pin that I inserted from the opposite side to help line it up. Did you try putting it together off the frame to make sure it is the correct length? Lube it well, and be patient it will line up.

The cast wheel with the roller bearing that can be greased is a much better design than the old 1600 wheels. Here's what I do: I lay the wheel on the rotor side and put the axle through the pulley hub and wheel hub then push the pulley hub down tight. The axle slides right through for me because the pulley hub is holding the inner spacer in line.

So I've tried putting it together off the bike. Even when I've got the hub installed as far as I can shove it on there the spacer still has a lot of slop it seems. I can rattle it around, not so much side to side (pulley to disk) but up and down. As soon as I stand the wheel up it drops down. I've tried the drift pin, but it seems I would need to have one almost the exact size of the axle.

Mine moved around also but it will go just keep trying. Take your time and don't get frustrated.

I think my middle name is impatient. I'm beyond frustrated for the night. I think I'm going to try greasing the crap out of it tomorrow to maybe hold it a little better, then try again. Just as long as I know other people have struggled with it let's me know it should work the way it is. By the looks of the drawings, Yamaha made a big design change with that spacer. Why, not sure, but it sure makes it a pain.

Use a coat hanger from the opposite side you put the axle in.

Coat hanger, now there's an idea. Some of the biggest problems can be solved with coat hangers and duck tape. I'm going to check it out.

I just did my 99 to 04 cast a few weeks ago. You can do the hangar , screwdriver trick as suggested.

Also, packing the axle hole with grease will hold it in place until you get the axle started (the axle will push out the extra grease when installed.

Ok, so now my patients is back, I went out and looked at it a little more closely. It looks like the issue is with the hub alignment when I put it together with the Dampers in place. It seems like it's getting Jammed up in the collar that runs on the inside of the needle bearing.It looks like if the alignment is not perfect with the hub, the axle goes in maybe off by a Nats ass and it gets jammed up in that collar. As soon as I take the dampers out and put the hub back in, I can get the axle to slide right in. I'm doing this all while the wheel in on the bench. I tried using a rubber mallet to beat the hub down as far as it could go, but no luck. It only seems to work if I take the dampers out. Are the tolerances that tight????? How about lube on the dampers to help the hub slide around a little? The hub right now is tighter than a frogs ass when I install it with the dampers.