I guess by now you have all seen my post's about my buddy's 400ex that's front whhel look's bent in. NOW LET ME STATE FOR THE RECORD IM NOT BASHING THE 400EX I HONESTLY LIKE THE BIKE. Let me start from the beginning he has owned this bike for about 6 month's and hasn't really ridden it much cause he travel's alot with his job, maybe 20 hour's top. Garage kept and power washed after every ride. Anyway his front right tire has always since new looked bent in, he took it back to the dealer after I noticed it and they said there was nothing they could do about it that they all were like this. They did put a new ball joint on na dit seemed to ride a little smoother but not much. Now it look's really bad esp. when you ride on a flat surface, so on some advice I got off of here we measured the front wheels to check alignment these were the number's 34.5 in the front of the front tire and 36 in the back of the front tire. These number's should be the same or close to it. Now if the wheels were bent out adjusting the tie rod's would cure it but it's bent in. So it looked like something was bent I have personally ben on every trip with and it has never as much as been rolled or layed over let alone wrecked. So we called the dealer last night and they said that since he has brough this to their attention they have checked every bike they have sold and they are all like this, and many people have brought their's back to get them fixed but they can't. So he told us that the FRAME"S are welded wrong at the factory yet they continue to seel them like nothing is wrong we trie sto Honda but could get an answer I will let you guy's know how it turn's out. Like I said b4 Im not bashing the 400ex I'm just relaying so info to people who may not notice it check your bike measure your front wheels from front tire to front tire at in front and in back your #'s should be the same if they aren't take a couple of step's back and check your bike's stance in one wheel is tilting in then you have a factory bent frame. ANd call your dealer.

 

Interesting, But I know of no wheeled vehicles that have front wheels that are parallel to one another. Most have either toe out, or toe in. I can tell you that my Rancher has considerable toe out, which makes a 4x4 handle much better. Most high performance rear wheel drive vehicles have considerable toe in, to compensate for the wheels tendency to toe out at speed. I have no idea what the "toe" on a 400EX should be, but I am sure you can find out. BTW you can adjust "toe" either in or out, by adjusting your tie rods.

 

I am not sure, but I think he means the camber is tweaked on one of the wheels. The top is leaned in or out from the bottom.

My left front wheel is tipped just slightly out at the top, compared to the right side. I am almost positive I did it though, resulted from a crash. I am no expert, but I don't think it hurts anything. I have been riding and racing it that way for 2 years.

 

My husband had the same problem on his 2000 400ex. It is the camber, or toe in or out. Your dealership should have a mechanic that can take care of this problem. It gives the specs in the repair manual. It is quite annoying to ride with it out of spec. My husband took his in as soon as he realised what was wrong and told the guy how to fix it. This is an easy fix, just tell the mechanic to look up the specs in his manual.

 

philzie, his measurment refferance, was from the front of the tire to the back of the tire. This leads me to think he is talking about "toe". If he is talking about caster or camber, I don't know of a way you could adjust it short of bending something.

 

Some things need to be cleared up here. Toe is the relationship of the front of the wheels to the back of the wheels. The gentleman who explained it in the post above couldn't have done a better job.
Camber, is the inward or outward tilt of the tire. This is not adjustable on most stock machines, to include the EX.
Castor is also not adjustable, it is the relationship of the top ball joint to the lower ball joint. Positive castor results in a very stable machine at speeds, it will want to go straight, but will suffer in turning. Negative caster will result in a very twitchy machine at speed, but will turn better.
Most people will not know how to adjust castor properly even if they had the tools to do so and probably would not do a better job than the factory settings.
I believe that the toe setting procedure is clearly described and illustrated in the chilton's and clymer manuals. I doubt that Honda has a problem with the frames being welded incorrectly.

 

Here is another case of me not being able to read... I skipped the sentence stating the front to back measurement. OOpS. Sorry.

lilred300 is right, the dealer should be able to adjust the toe fairly easily. You do want to have a slight toe in on the front. The wheel alignment 'should' be symmetrical. One should definately not be in or out from the other.

 

The camber is not adjustable on the 400ex or alot of other four wheelers for that, and as far as bending something to correct it why in the hell would you want to bend something that is BRAND NEW and that he paid full price for!