| Author | Message | ||
     Slash6 |
New 09 Uly, had it 1 week put about 400+ miles on it. Rode 230 miles Sunday Am, came home and cut it off in the drive and pushed it into the garage - seemed to be heavy, but its a little uphill and I was hot. Changed clothes and went back out to check the oil, looking around the bike for leaks, loose parts etc. saw some grease smear on the right side of the axle with some stripes in it (see pic). I can't think of anything that it could be but a seized bearing - is there supposed to be a spacer on that side of the axle? The dealer is about 60 miles away, I don't have a trailer and am not sure about riding it there if the bearing is bad. Any ideas about what else it might be?  | ||
| Hughlysses |
Robert- the grease with streaks in it is just the anti-seize they coated the axle with prior to screwing it into the swingarm. The turning motion of the axle through that side of the swingarm as it was screwed in produced the "streaks" in the grease. It looks OK as far as I can tell. If you can find a way to get the back wheel off the ground (home made wooden muffler cradle and motorcycle jack work well), spin the wheel and check for roughness. You can also place a finger in the end of the hollow axle to help you feel any roughness in the movement as the wheel is spun. I suspect it's fine though. What is very curious though is that you clearly have an NTN wheel bearing with an orange seal. Buell was supposed to have changed to KBC wheel bearings with black seals starting in the 2008 model year (mid-October 2007 as far as we can tell). The KBC bearings supposedly have better seals and more water-resistant grease. How an NTN bearing wound up on a 2009 Uly is a mystery. Do you know if the bearing already been changed at some point? (Message edited by Hughlysses on August 19, 2009) | ||
| Nobuell |
My June build 08 XT has the orange seals. | ||
| Rwven |
Nobuell, Save yourself some grief and just get them replaced now. | ||
| Hughlysses |
Nobuell- that's expected, assuming you mean June 2007. The newest bike before this one that we've seen with orange seal bearings posted here is Court's October 2007 build 08X. All the later 08's and ALL the 09's as far as we knew had the black seal KBC bearings. How Slash6 wound up with orange seal bearings on a 2009 bike is a mystery. | ||
| Treefrog |
My FEB 08 built XT has the orange seals. It came that way brand spankin new. Guess they had to use up the old stuff before starting to use the new ones. | ||
| Hughlysses |
Treefrog- The new bearings were first mentioned at Homecoming 07 by Abe Askenazi of Buell and it seems like at that time they said they hoped they'd start showing up in August 2007 build date Buells. I'm pretty sure we've seen it posted that at least some late 07 built 2008 Buells had the black bearings and we were under the impression that ALL 09 model Buells had the black seal bearings. Now it's looking like they may have switched back for a while, or at least they may have used a mix of black and orange bearings until all the orange seal bearings were all gone. Any other 09's with orange seal bearings out there? | ||
| Slash6 |
Build date Oct. 08 - I had seen that it had the orange bearings but thought that I could get to the first tire change at least before swapping. I do have a MC jack, but havn't had time to build a cradle yet. I hadn't noticed the grease before this ride, might just wipe it off and ride a little and see what happens. | ||
| Crusty |
You guys are all a year off.Abe told me about the new bearings last year at Homecoming. They started showing up on bikes that were built in the fall of '08. that means model year '09s. I had to replace the orange seal bearings in my '08 XT that was built in March of '08. | ||
| Hughlysses |
Crusty- I guess Oldtimer's disease is setting in with me. That makes complete sense then; all my dates were off by 1 year. Sorry for the error. Slash6's bike is right there with Court's then, hopefully making it one of the last bikes with the NTN bearings. | ||
| Mnrider |
That bearing looks OK but you can jack it up on the rear jack point on the muffler and spin the wheel and check for side to side movement. | ||
| Nobuell |
Hughlysses According to the tag on the frame, June 08. I purchased the bike July of 08. It appears that they were using the old style well into the 08 model year. | ||
| Hughlysses |
Yep, see Crusty's post above; I was off by a year. Abe announced new bearings at Homecoming 2008; they started showing up on production 2009 model motorcycles built around October 2008. | ||
| Treefrog |
Hughlysses- it's all good. I'm keeping an eye on them. Hopefully they'll last a while. Riding season is almost over up here. It will give me something to do this winter. | ||
| Mnrider |
+1 On your personal quote Treefrog  | ||
| Scooter808484 |
I've had the bearings go twice. Both times they started making noises, audible even with earplugs in and engine running. Then the seal got poked out by the broken ball cage. Those look good to me. | ||
| Portero72 |
My 09 has the orange seals-13.5k and so far so good....fingers crossed. |
