| Author | Message | ||
     Electraglider_1997 |
Up until this morning I always just popped the outer bearing seal and added grease and then buttoned it back up and was good to go. I noticed last time that I changed my tire and added grease to the bearing that the inner race was very hard to turn (both rear bearings) but I went ahead and put things back together and rode. Been bothering me thinking about those hard turning bearings so I decided to do something about it. Removed the wheel. popped the outer seal on both bearings. Used a new paint brush and diesel fuel to clean out all the grease in both bearings. Turned the wheel on end so the tire was on the ground and used my heat gun to boil out the greasy diesel fuel. Finger pushed in as much grease as I could and then pressured in more with a jar lid. Then put more grease on the bearing and pressured it in as much as I could by re-installing the seal. Did this to both bearings. Pleasantly surprised that both bearings turn nice and smooth and easy now. These are orange seal bearings and will see if I can get another 30,000 miles out of them. | ||
| Uly_man |
Cool. | ||
| Mnviking |
I love this suggestion. Next tire change I'm going to do the same. | ||
| Electraglider_1997 |
This explains it a little better. I should have photo'd the whole thing but it was pretty messy. I firmly believe that a buildup of ground micro-grit inside the caged bearing sort of locks them up to finger turning. Sure the bike will make them turn but when you check them with your fingers they just take more torque than your fingers can exert. Before I put my wheel back on yesterday morning, the bearings felt like new. I used diesel fuel and a paint brush to dab and wash away all the old funky micro-gritty grease. Probably any good solvent would work, maybe brake cleaner. I used my heat gun to boil off all the solvent. The diesel actually boiled out of there. Not red hot, just hot enough to get the bearings dry of solvent. Have the wheel standing on it's tire when you heat the solvent so the gritty dirty solvent can boil and run out easier. You don't want that filth left in there when the solvent is all dried out of the bearing. And don't get them spinning with compressed air or the pressure behind those brake cleaner aerosol cans or you'll gall the bearing. Now it's time to work grease into them as best you can. I used a plastic peanut butter jar with it's lid on to pressure the grease back into the bearing. The flat lid against the bearing, push hard and twist to get that grease to squeeze into the caged balls. Some say don't use a lot of grease but I use as much as possible and mine have lasted with zero failures. Finally I use the seal to squeeze the grease into every nook and cranny so that bearing isn't possibly going to spin metal to metal when the wheel is back on. Then after that seal is fully seated I brush anti-seize over the entire outside bearing and seal to make a good secondary water and dust seal. That stuff works great at keeping the outside of your bearing from ever rusting. Dirt may stick to that stuff but it never gets to the bearing and that is what counts. To many folks on BadWeb have taken pictures of their rusty failed bearings. My bearings have zero rust on outside or inside and that is because of the coating of Permatex anti-seize. Buell didn't engineer a dust seal until 2010 model so the rest of us had to do it our own way. If I had the 2010 wheel I'd probably put never-sieze on the bearings before installing the dust seal, just like slathering it on the axle to keep the axle from corroding. That stuff just works. | ||
| Whitj |
Picture or how to pull the end caps would be very helpful. Any one have some to share? Thanks | ||
| Electraglider_1997 |
Use a flat bladed screwdriver the size you'd use to work on watch. The smaller the better but you don't need to get carried away. http://www.esslinger.com/replacementscrewdriverbla des-soldinpackagesof3.aspx I just work the flat of the blade under the outside of the seal and lever it out. Comes out easy. Don't over think it, just try it. I wish I had taken a photo. Try to picture this in your head: Bearing is flat to you and still in the dismounted wheel. Blade flat is worked at a very low angle under outside lip of seal with the rest of the screwdriver going across the bearing hole towards the outside diameter of seal where you are trying to lightly lever it out. I know a picture would be better but you can figure it out. Good luck. If you happen to gouge the seal, don't fret, the anti-seize will seal the hole. Hasn't caused mine any harm. | ||
| Rays |
There are many ways of getting these seals out - I have always worked on the outer part of the seal and have good success with the small blade on my old Swiss Army pocket knife. This is the rough orientation of blade to bearing. As Electroglider pointed out above you have to work the blade in between the bearing and the seal at a low angle.  Once in position at the bottom of the recess in the bearing a slight twist of the blade will put it behind the seal.  Work the blade carefully around the seal and it comes out as easy as pie.  I have caught my rears with the grease like grey toothpaste after a long trip in the rain and washed them out in a similar way to what Electroglider described. Fresh grease and they looked as good gold at the next tyre change 10,000km later. I pop the seals and check the grease situation at every tyre change. | ||
| Electraglider_1997 |
Rays, ++1 for the photos. For the uninitiated though, you DO NOT need to remove the bearing from the wheel to clean and regrease them. It is really too bad that our wheels don't have a collet chuck type arrangement to hold and release the bearings. Now that would make cleaning and loading with grease a breeze. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collet | ||
| Hughlysses |
DO NOT need to remove the bearing from the wheel to clean and regrease them. Make that you CAN NOT remove the bearing from the wheel to clean and regrease it. Removing it from the wheel requires you to apply a side-load to the inner race which will coin the inner and/or outer races ruining the bearings. If you ever take one out, throw it away. | ||
| Electraglider_1997 |
Hugh, Exactly. Though if enough bearing removals and reinstalls are done, I'd wager that the bearings would eventually fit so loose that you could pull them out with your fingers. Our old Yamaha Radian wheel bearings are like that and I stake them in with a hammer and screwdriver. | ||
| Reepicheep |
I used to have a Radian... lots of character for a parts bin bike. | ||
| Rays |
For the uninitiated though, you DO NOT need to remove the bearing from the wheel to clean and re-grease them. Fair point - I just grabbed a bearing I removed a while back to take the picture of the seal removal and overlooked to mention that.  You are absolutely correct about the potential for Uly wheels having loose bearings. I changed my rear bearings at 45,000km because they were very tight to turn and foolishly took it to my dealer to have them removed because I didn't have the correct tools. As it turns out neither did they and I received a wheel back with impact marks on the inside of the bearing spacer and the wheel from where the bearing was driven out with a drift. The damage was on the drive side and it was obvious that the bearing had been 'walked' out from the slight marks on the bearing surface in the wheel. I fitted the new bearings very carefully and noted the drive side bearing went in very easily. Fast forward another 40,000km and I started hearing 'clicking' from the rear when wheeling the bike around. I eventually tracked this down to movement in the drive side bearing within the bearing recess. The bearing hadn't 'spun' but has obviously been working away like this for ages.  I fitted a new set of bearings using green loctite as a 'temporary' measure 20,000km ago and to my amazement it is still holding up. I'm under no illusions though and a new 2010 rear wheel is sitting there waiting for me to get the time to fit the bearing, rotor & pulley. Based on my limited experience with one rough bearing removal I would be very nervous about changing the bearings on a regular basis. | ||
| Electraglider_1997 |
You might also like to stake it in place with a hammer and flat blade screwdriver. Gouge the aluminum inward with the screwdriver outside of the outside race of the bearing. About 4 or 5 stakes will help that green loctite from breaking free. |
