| Author | Message | ||
     Riding_tall |
Am I mechanically challenged or am I using the wrong tool ? I'm trying to remove the old bearings and have made zero progress. The tool I bought has a handle and a split collar that is supposed to go on the inside of the bearing to knock it out but with the spacer between the bearings I can't get on the inside ?!? Am I missing something obvious or is a tool that expands on the bearing and pulls it out from the outside the only way ? | ||
| Panhead_dan |
That center spacer should have just enough play to get the tool on the inner race. Be patient and don't booger up your wheel. | ||
| Riding_tall |
No luck. The spacer is flush with the inside of the bearing, couldn't get a piece of paper in there, much less a tool. May just give in and take it to the shop tomorrow. | ||
| Ironhead1977 |
You need 2 Buell tools, part # b-43993-50 and part # hd-44060.You pull the bearings out. | ||
| Rotorhead |
The bearing change was the perfect reason to buy a blind bearing puller. http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=95987 $40 is 40 mins labor at the HD dealer and I get to keep the tool!!!! There are 3 stores in the ATL area. One right near you on Lawrenceville HWY. I had a time of it pulling the break side bearing so I gave up and did the drive side first. Then I knocked out the break side from the inside with the spacer out of the way. with a close to the same diameter socket as the whole opening and a 1/2" extention to wack it came right out. The break side had some corrosion holding it in. hears a pic of the tool and how it grabs the bearing only by a bit and fits between the spacer and the bearing but it holds tight.   I replaced mine as a precaution before a cross country trip with SKF bearings. Still have the old ones as backups. Hope this helps save you time and money by not taking it to anyone else to do. | ||
| Hughlysses |
I used the Harbor Freight puller too. You have to tighten the snot out of it to get it to grip the bearing sufficiently. Heating the hub of the wheel with a hairdryer to expand it slightly also helps. Even with that, I gave up on using the slide hammer that came with the tool and instead used a metal rod with a dead blow hammer against the tool from the opposite side of the wheel. The drive side bearing took about 10 minutes of hammering before it budged at all, but once it started moving it came right out. The brake side bearing came out fairly easily. | ||
| Skyclad |
I was able to pull both sides quickly and easily with the Harbor Freight bearing puller. If you are going to be tossing the bearings, like I did, try a bit of PB Blaster about 30 minutes before actually yanking the bearing. Just a little around the outer race, wait for it to do its magic and the bearings came out with four or five hits on each side. I do not recommend the PB Blaster if you are planning on reusing the bearings. PB Blaster is probably the best penetrating fluid out there; bearing seals don't even stand a chance. I doubt it would be good to have PB Blaster contaminating the grease if the bearings are going to be reused. | ||
| Hughlysses |
If you are going to be tossing the bearings... You should always toss the bearings if you remove them. The removal process dents the races since you're hammering on the inner race and the outer race is trying to hold the bearing in place. You can almost guarantee the bearings will quickly self-destruct if you try to reuse them. From "All Balls" website: "REMOVING WHEEL BEARINGS: When you knock a bearing out of a wheel, for chroming, powdercoating, etc., you are fundamentally destroying that bearing. In fact, there's no other way to get it out without destroying it because it's pressed in on the outer diameter but access to the bearing is from the inner diameter. So you're putting an impact force across the balls of the bearing, which damages it. It's called loading across the bearing races. You're putting little microscopic dents into the ball and the race, and over time they get aggravated. The technical term is brinneling; when you put a shock force on an outer race to an inner race across the balls, that's what you get." (Message edited by hughlysses on October 20, 2008) | ||
| Riding_tall |
Thanks for the pic's and link's .. Always looking for a good reason to get more tools. I'll get one on the way home today. I'll try some PB Blaster too .. that stuff works great. The bearings are trashed so that's just where there going. Got to get the bike back on the road. | ||
| Adamd |
Interesting thread... So how do you install the bearings? Do you hammer them in as well? | ||
| Hughlysses |
You install bearings by tapping them in using something resting on the outer race (pipe, socket, etc.) so that you don't damage the bearing races like you do when you remove them. It also helps to put the bearings in the freezer for a couple of hours ahead of time and to pre-heat the wheel slightly with a hair dryer or similar. I put a light coat of grease on the outside of my bearings (to hopefully prevent the corrosion we've all seen when we take the old bearings out) and mine tapped in fairly easily. | ||
| Ratbuell |
The proper installation technique involves the bearing puller foot, and a threaded rod for slow, even pressure pulling it into place. No shock loading. | ||
| Hootis29 |
Heat is your friend. | ||
| Rahbert |
what tools are recommended for installing bearings? | ||
| Wolfridgerider |
 Just wanna keep a eye on this thread.... | ||
| Treadmarks |
Heat is your friend. So is the freezer! I put the bearings in the freezer over night. After removing the old bearings and cleaning up the bearing seats (hub) I drilled a pair of 1/8" offset weep holes so the water that gets in the hub can drain out (like the front wheel does). Heat up the seat (hub) with a heat gun and then remove bearings from the freezer. The frozen bearings pushed right in the heated hub. No need to hammer them, as the torque applied to the axle while installing the wheel will fully seat them.  | ||
| Rotorhead |
I used a threaded rod with a huge fender washer and nut on both ends. Slowly tighten the nut on one end and it will press nice and easy into the wheel hubs. The big thing to watch out for is keeping that cheap spacer centered. I think the spacer off center causes half the bearing failures. A little off center and the rotating wheel will throw the spacer so off center the spacer contacts the axle. the softer metal always losses in that case. Just my feeling on the bearing failures. | ||
| Riding_tall |
this has been a lot more down time than I wanted but I resolved to fix this myself. I found the bearing puller I needed ( thanks to the help from this post - that's you rotorhead - thank you) but it's on the north side of the ATL. I'll run up there in the AM and get the tool I need. This is after having waited a week for the "wrong" tool I ordered from a HD/Buell dealer .. a well. Ok .. and hold me to this. I will post a "how-to" with a lot of pic's to help the n00b's like me. | ||
| Thesmaz |
Thanks for the link to harbor freight for the tool, I'll have to get one of those on the way ASAP! Question though, with all of the different threads about really good replacement bearings, which ones from which reseller is everyone using? What spec/type of grease is everyone using? Being that I'm in Italy I can't have the grease shipped sh I'll have to find a local vendor so I need to know what type to get. I also want to find some of the ceramic based grease that is only for use on aluminum that the shop in Belgium put on my axles each time the change the tires for me. Really helps keep the corrosion down. | ||
| Hughlysses |
Steve- These bearings are sealed and come pre-lubricated with appropriate grease. The only thing you need to worry about is some sort of anti-seize to go on the axle to prevent corrosion between the steel inner bearing races and the aluminum axle. People have used the original NTN brand bearings, Koyo, and SKF. I've seen posts on several NTN failures, but only one for Koyo and one for SKF. We believe Buell is now using an updated NTN bearing with improved seals (later 09 bikes have black seals on the bearings vice the orange seals used on previous models), but there's been no "official" confirmation of this. | ||
| Thesmaz |
Hugh, Thanks for the info. I guess I'll go back reread some of the older threads so I can make sure to order the correct size for the front and rear as well as a source. I'll have to be sure to find a vendor that will ship to an APO address via USPS so I can actually receive them. I've got 20k on my 06 now and have several things planned to do when the rain/snow hits and I will just add this to the list (HIDs, Ft Bastard voltage monitor, bearings, 07 fork springs, and 20k service). I've got several big rides planned for next year and want to be sure that the bike is ready to go! | ||
| Hughlysses |
Steve- I'd think you could find the SKF's locally. They're a standard industrial bearing and must have lots of mundane applications. | ||
| Thesmaz |
Hugh, Did a bit a research, found these guys http://www.vxb.com/page/bearings/PROD/Kit112?gclid =CPqstM2HuZYCFQtJtAodVRW0Lw Looks like a guy can get 4 Koyo bearings for $30 + shipping, if I'm reading it correctly. The front bearings are the same as the rears, correct? Usually I can get things shipped from the US for cheaper than what I can buy them locally for given the dollar to euro rate. | ||
| Hughlysses |
Steve- Front and rear are not the same: 6006 2RS rear 6005 2RS front (from another bearing thread) | ||
| Thesmaz |
Thanks, I guess I didn't read enough of the archived threads that came up when I did a search. | ||
| Thesmaz |
That website has the correct ones for the front as well, cheap too! | ||
| Riding_tall |
WEW .. FINALLY have the new bearings in and the bike is back on the road. Thanks all for the help. I did take a bunch of pic's and will start working on a how-to. Now I know what it will take to change a belt too. Once I had the proper tool it was'nt that bad. Took a little motivation to get the old ones to start moving out. The heating the hub / freezing the bearing helped a lot getting them back in and luckily I had a huge socket that I had used to put the ball on my trailer hitch. It fit perfect around the outside of the bearing race. The old bearings don't look really bad ( at least to me ) but had a bad "flat spot" in them when holding the wheel by the bearings spinning the wheel. Also the odd vibration that I thought was the front tire just out of balance is gone. Felt like a small rock stuck in the tread and I only noticed it once and a while. I also used tread's idea of two small weep holes to let water out. Seem's like a good idea. | ||
| Neurorider |
I've always used the old bearing as the tool to push in the new bearing. It's just the right diameter! Glad you got back on the road, RidingTall. Mine is all taken apart, about to jump into this to get new bearings in it too. | ||
| Neurorider |
Treadmarks-where exactly did you drill the weep holes? Sounds like a good idea! | ||
| Hughlysses |
I'll likely be changing the rear tire on my Uly this weekend; I'm curious to see how my Koyo's are holding up after ~6500 miles. They're not showing any visible signs of failure. I jacked the bike up a few weeks ago before heading out to Buelltoberfest and rotated the wheel while holding my finger against the inside of the axle. I couldn't detect any indications of roughness doing that; I'm hoping that turns out to be a good inspection technique for the bearings. | ||
| Treadmarks |
Treadmarks-where exactly did you drill the weep holes? Sounds like a good idea!  From this thread. |
