| Author | Message | ||
     Callawegian |
I currently have 22555 miles on my 2006 Uly and I am changing out both tires. While I have the wheels off should I go ahead and replace the wheel bearings? If I start on this project I have a 2003 Lightning Shop manual is there anything I will need to know before I get into doing this? Any help and/or advise will be greatly appreciated! | ||
| Cataract2 |
Just check them. If they are bad then replace. Otherwise don't. Simple check is to roll the wheel with your fingers pushing down on the inner races of the bearing to see them rolling. If there is binding then they are bad. | ||
| Sifo |
You can also carefully pull the seals out of the bearing and actually clean, inspect, and repack them. It just takes a small screw driver or better yet, a dental pick. My wheel bearings appear to have failed from water intrusion. Since I started repacking them at tire changes, I've not had a problem. | ||
| Mmcn49 |
No if ands or buts about it, just change them. The three bearing rear wheel is the exception. Replacing them is very easy but you need a blind bearing puller to remove. There are lots of threads on doing it. I gave the actual bearing part number from the seal to a bearing distributer several years ago and learned a lot. Wheel bearings that Buell uses are not really sealed but have loose contact seals. Ball bearings like these can fall into one of four categories: Open – No shields or seals. Shielded – Keeps only big debris pieces out. Loose Contact Seals – Keeps most moisture and debris out. Run cooler than sealed bearings. Sealed – Keeps all water and moisture out. There’s a very heavy pre load on the bearings from the drive belt. Sooner or later the cage fails. When that happens you have interesting ride on your hands. I had one fail doing about 40 in moderate to heavy traffic on a 6-lane road. The bike had less than 5000 miles. | ||
| Fullpower |
Front are 6005 Rear 6006. I "know a guy" that can set you up with best quality bearings. PM for details. | ||
| Fast1075 |
A Free Spirits belt tensioner solves the "tight belt" problem, and makes it much easier to R&R the wheel. |
