rear wheel - help!

Trying to put the rear wheel back on about three weeks after I took it off and can't remember whether I took the brake plate/adjuster assembly off before I took the wheel off. If the brake plate is not in place, I can get the wheel back onto the shaft drive hub, but then with the wheel in place without the brake there is nowhere near enough clearance to get the brake assembly into the wheel.
So I'm thinking the brake plate must be in place in the wheel before I put the wheel back in, which feels right, but when I attack it that way I can't get the bloody wheel up onto the shaft drive hub. The brake activator/wear indicator bit keeps fouling the exhaust. I know for sure I didn't have to remove the exhaust to get the wheel off!!
Taking it off seemed easy, but putting it back has become a nightmare and of course the Haynes manual cunningly fails to spell it out for thickoes like me.
Can somebody please tell me and my boy (who is quite handy) what we're doing wrong? Feeling very stupid and not a little frustrated.

tonym911 wrote:Trying to put the rear wheel back on about three weeks after I took it off and can't remember whether I took the brake plate/adjuster assembly off before I took the wheel off. If the brake plate is not in place, I can get the wheel back onto the shaft drive hub, but then with the wheel in place without the brake there is nowhere near enough clearance to get the brake assembly into the wheel.
So I'm thinking the brake plate must be in place in the wheel before I put the wheel back in, which feels right, but when I attack it that way I can't get the bloody wheel up onto the shaft drive hub. The brake activator/wear indicator bit keeps fouling the exhaust. I know for sure I didn't have to remove the exhaust to get the wheel off!!
Taking it off seemed easy, but putting it back has become a nightmare and of course the Haynes manual cunningly fails to spell it out for thickoes like me.
Can somebody please tell me and my boy (who is quite handy) what we're doing wrong? Feeling very stupid and not a little frustrated.  

Put the wheel in first, then the brake plate, then the spacer & push trough the spindle. I think your problem is that you have not got the cush drive rubbers lined up with the drive 'fins' in the rear drive unit. You have to turn the wheel until they line up with slots in rubber & the wheel will then go fully home & you can fit the brake plate & spacer

thanks for the reply John, I've definitely got the cush drive blocks lined up ok with the fins, it's then a big job to get the wheel banged in and then it seems to be impossible to get the brake assembly into the wheel hub at that point.
Really struggling with it. You're definite that the brake assembly goes in AFTER the wheel is mounted on the shaft drive?

tonym911 wrote: You're definite that the brake assembly goes in AFTER the wheel is mounted on the shaft drive?

Yes done it dozens of times, its a bit tight though, & you need to detach the brake rod & anchor bracket. You need to turn it into a position so brake pivot avoids swinging arm & silencer.

Weird how it seemed to come out no bother, and how you should have to detach the brake rod to put it back on, but not to take it off! What part do you mean by anchor bracket?

tonym911 wrote:Weird how it seemed to come out no bother, and how you should have to detach the brake rod to put it back on, but not to take it off! What part do you mean by anchor bracket?

Actually called a brake torque arm, its the piece of metal that bolts between the brake plate & frame to stop the brake plate turning

Oh aye I knew about that torque arm. Had detached the brake rod as well of course. Now it's detached itself from the footpedal end ha ha so I'll have to remember the routing of that!

Thanks for the help John, I'll give it another go when I've got a minute, at least knowing the brake assy goes in after the wheel means I know I'm doing it right, even if it won't go in!
best wishes
Tony

Had the same problem as you last week, took the wheel of to clean the rust off the spokes, then couldn't get the sodding thing back in place. Ended up bending the exhaust 90%. NO i'm joking  , but that's what i felt like doing, i fitted the brake plate on first, it was a tight fit. What was Yamaha thinking when they designed it like that. I bet nobody at Yamaha had a puncture on a dark night miles from anywhere and pissing down with rain, if they had then they would have soon changed the setup.

Thank god, i thought I was the only one!
Pal in the trade reckons I need to spray WD40 onto the cush drive rubbers to get the wheel onto the shaft drive hub, then hopefully it should be relatively easy to squeeze the brake plate into place. It seems extraordinary really, there was no indication during disassembly that there would be any problem. Weird.

Never spray WD40 on to rubber it will rot it in weeks!!!!!
Spray it on an old worn out tyre and watch it crack up over a few weeks.

WD40 info says:
WD-40 Multi-Use Product can be used on just about everything. It is safe to use on metal, rubber, wood and plastic. It can also be applied to painted metal surfaces without harming the paint. Polycarbonate and clear polystyrene plastic are among the few surfaces on which to avoid using a petroleum-based product like WD-40 Multi-Use Product.

GT85 they say is better, I'll get a can of that.

Spray some on the side walls of an old trye and see what its like after afew weeks