Front hub axle too short?
 

Hi guys, this may be a silly question, but here it goes anyway.

I'm trying to restore an old Schwinn Traveler my bro found in the dumpster. The process is going pretty well in general, but I'm a bit puzzled when it comes to installing the front wheel. Basically, the wheel came without any quick release mechanism, but it did have those fancy curved metal links that attach to the inside of the fork. Fine. However, the axle of the front hub appears to be too short to fit in the fork. I CAN get it in, but to do this, I need to apply some inward pressure to the fork. Also, the aforementioned links won't really fit on the axle with such arrangement. Is this anywhere near normal for old bikes? The wheel appears to have come from this bike and I can't see any signs of a broken axle. Sorry, I don't have any pics at hand. Thanks in advance, your responses are much appreciated! :)

Mothra, thanks for your suggestion. As you can probably tell by now, I've never had a vintage bike before. I assumed that the tabs go on the inside of the fork by looking at many eBay listings, like this for example:

http://www.broadwayvintage.net/ebaya...ler6150009.JPG

Why else would they put those two screws on the inside of the fork? And which direction do the tabs go on the outside fo the fork? Thanks again!

Hmm I think Mothra miss understood your question, and in his post was reffering to the lawyer tabs that are on the drop outs on the outside.
Anyway back to your question, no clue what those screws on the inside are for. You can try also posting in vintage forum.

Oh sorry! I forgot there's those other kinds of retention tabs. The ones I was thinking of were small washers on the outside that has a finger to poke into a rectangular hole in the dropouts just above the slot.

Looks like your forks may have been spread out too far, you shouldn't have to press them inwards. In fact, they should fit just perfect so that you CAN'T press them inwards even if you tried, they're already snug up against the axle-locknuts. So just take the wheel off and squeeze the forks together about 1/2", hold for about 5-10 seconds and let go. Re-insert wheel and see if there's still a gap, remove wheel and re-squeeze until the wheel fits perfectly. :)