I might be way off, but I thought the springer front stuff for all BT worked on the vl springer. As long as its a Star Hub, that is. Might take a different spacer n stuff. Strut arm might be different too.

 

Is that a real VL or a W&W dutch/polish replica? Those use Big Twin rockers so everything is like a later spring fork.
Does your right rocker have the little dogleg where the axle goes through and the larger hole on the left?
And for another idea a german shop Kickstartworks put a Yamaha XT500 drum brake on a springer and called it "aggressive" when compared to stock.

 

Wow...that Yamaha brake setup is pretty fuckin cool.

Guy...change nothing, man...that's tits. I guarantee it will stop better than any early Harley drum/brake setup you put on there.

And yes, Teddy's Taiwan repop springer brake drums/backing plate/brake shackle will work on VLs if the rockers are later era and you are using a star hub and correct axle/axle kit. Ejemplo:

 

 

Guy,
As long as you are using big twin rockers (the ones with the dog-leg in the right side rocker) all of the axle, spacer, brake and star hub parts are a direct bolt-on. You'll need the correct brake stay too, so the grease fittings line up like they should.

Geo.

 

Love your signature George. That was the motto of a "Dance Club" in our town's red light district. Different spelling though

 

To clarify: it is a genuine, bone stock VL fork, not a repop.

Will a BT front brake still work? What about the fact the VL springer is narrower than a BT springer?

 

So's mine. It will work.

 

Im trying to think of how to avoid the hub offset, would there be a real issue making a custom axle spacer for the star side of the hub and using washers between the brake drum and the hub? From what i see on mine, the VL is .5" more narrow than a knuckle springer. This would keep the backing plate tight to the rocker and allow me to kind of push the hub more towards the center. Any strong objection to this?

 

I try to wrap my head around your question and I think you have not thought that through. If you use Big Twin rockers and your VL fork is .5" narrower than a Big Twin Springer the backing plate, drum and hub are already pushed off center towards the kickstart side of the motorcycle. You move the rim over to the primary side to center it. Then the spacer on the star (kickstart) side of the hub gets shortened and the step on the axle moved towards the kickstart side also.
second: NEVER,EVER PUT WASHERS IN BETWEEN THE DRUM AND THE HUB. I would not even trust a machined spacer in there....

 

NEVER,EVER PUT WASHERS IN BETWEEN THE DRUM AND THE HUB. I would not even trust a machined spacer in there....

This is pretty much what i was curious about. I believe you are right now thinking about it again, the offset would be towards the kicker side. I was trying to work out the issue in my head while at work. In my head I was thinking that the drum was pulling it toward the primary side of the bike and i needed to space the star hub over, as well as cut the rest of the .5" off the spacer on the kicker side. I will mock it up again when I get home and reevaluate. Thanks!