Plainsman

We got my little one a 16" Schwinn for her birthday, and for the life of me I can't figure out how to get the front wheel on. It seems that the fork spacing is about 1/2" too small to fit the wheel on. What gives? I'll post a pic, maybe someone can tell me how I'm messing this up?

Plainsman

Darth_Firebolt

the nuts go on the outside of the fork legs. the nuts wedge the fork legs against the inner thingies (not sure what they're called). hope this helps.

10 Wheels

Back off the large nuts.
Fit into the slots
tighten the nuts

Sixty Fiver

You seem to be missing the thin lock nuts that set the bearing cones... the large nuts secure the wheel in the dropout.

Plainsman

I have the thin ones, do they go inside or outside the legs of the forks?

Darth_Firebolt

inside.

Plainsman

The issue seems to be how to get those bolts off. They appear to be attached to the spindle? The have small serrations on the outer face, like I would expect to on the face of fork dropouts. I put a pedal wrench inside that nut to lock the hub, and tried to turn the nut with no success, it all seems to move as a single piece.

Sixty Fiver

You need a cone wrench to secure the flats bearing cone and then you can remove the wheel nuts as they are probably locked up pretty tightly... the cone wrench will probably be a 13 or 14 mm and there really isn't another tool that you can use.

You will also need to reset the bearings so that they run smoothly, don;t bind, and have no play.

froze

I just bought a Target bike for my grandson and it had the exact same situation as yours. Mine came with no thinner nuts, they were all the same size. After adjusting the nuts you pictured to make sure the hubs had no play but still rotated freely...will freely enough for a cheap kids bike; I had to spread the forks by hand by first placing one blade then spreading the other side just far enough to clear the nut then slipped it on. Not a big deal just weird.

By the way the hub was a little tight at first, but after I spun it by hand for about 5 minutes it loosened up a bit and didn't feel so rough. But if I had loosened the cones any more there would have been too much slop in the hub. So I spun the wheel a bunch of times hoping it would free up a bit and it did.

Also your going to need to adjust the spokes! Make sure the crank, mine wasn't; and of course the headset needs adjusting because the handlebars are not attached in shipping. I also put a thin layer of grease on the stem, inside the headset, and seat post and seat tube.

Plainsman

Spread the forks, that's what I was thinking, but man these things are stout! How did you do it? My brother-in-law and I both took hold of a side and tried to pull them apart but could barely get them to budge! We put one side in first hoping to pull the other one out and slip it in as you said, but we may have budged it 1/8", no close to enough. I'm getting close to taking this one back.

top506

This is a pretty common with kid's bikes and low end BMX bikes. I run into this a lot at the store. I made a reverse press out of an old bolt-on rear axle. Thread on a couple of lock nuts towards the center, place the axle in the fork drop out, and cold-set the fork blades by turning the lock nuts outward against the inner surface of the drop out.
Top

neil0502

As always ... Sheldon can help....

https://www.sheldonbrown.com/frame-spacing.html

merckx_rider

spread the forks, place the wheel/axle into the dropout grab the forks and pull, the axle falls into place.

griftereck

The thick nuts on the axle are the locknuts.
I like these as they have a big contact area
They will take a 17mm spanner
The wheel nut will take a 15mm spanner. The same as the rear wheel nuts.
Its likely that the wheel will be 100mm over locknut. Although some bikes do still use narrower wheel hubs
this means that the forks have to be 100mm wide to accept the wheel.
Its tricky to measure how wide the locknuts are, even with a vernier caliper as the spokes are in the way.
you can put the wheel in a door and measure the gap.
Ive seen bikes that have been damaged in transit. The fork gap closes up.
If you got the bike at a shop you could ask them to show you how to fit the wheel.
If they cant do it. Ask for a replacement. Or your money back

froze

Damage in shipping maybe if there was an indication on the box of such, but not in my case. I'm thinking two things; either the mills that make the forks are not precise, or they do that on purpose to hinder the wheel from coming off even if someone doesn't put the lawyer tabs on?

griftereck

Old Raleigh had shaped cones on the axle and you had to spring the forks to hold them

but ussually if the hubs and drop outs are a different width, that will strain the axle and bearings. Can break axles.

If the bike is not damaged in transit, maybe it was faulty alignment when building at the factory.
I would send it back

froze

This is just a kids bike made for a 2 year old, he's going to outgrow it in 3 to 4 years, and he only rides it at our house because the bike stays here for him to play with when he comes over. I bought bikes for my own kids before that was built like this and never had an issue with the axle and or bearings breaking, so I not concern, plus I free spun the wheel and it rolls fairly well, obviously not as well as my bikes wheels, but one of my wheels alone would have paid for 6 or more of those kids bikes! So what do you expect-percision? Your not going to find that with a kids bike. You would be spending your entire kid's early years just sending back bike after bike trying to get a perfect bike and never finding it, meanwhile your kid is screaming, "I WANT A BIKE, I WANT A BIKE!!!" Give him or her a bike and forget it.