| Author | Message | ||
     Buellmeister57 |
Pulled the rear wheel to replace the tire and both bearings are bad. Very notchy, feels like there's no grease in them. The bike has 7000+ miles, 7/09 build date, orange seals. Took the wheel to the dealer and they ordered new bearings, covered under warranty. How can I be sure I'm getting latest/best bearing? Also the axle had a lot of corrosion. How can I stop that? | ||
| Gamdh |
The updated ones should have Black seals and are made by KBC ... IIRC | ||
| Buellerxt |
Buellmeister57, did you open the seals a bit to see how much grease you had? If so, do you think those bearings could have been used had you injected grease? How much do the new bearings cost, front and rear? I plan to re-grease my 'orange' bearings to be sure they are sufficiently packed but if they appear to be 'toast' maybe I'll have the black sealed bearings on hand. Given these constant bearing failures maybe I should re-pack the blacks before using them!  Did you do any water crossings, power washings, or heavy rainstorm riding? Ths. | ||
| Bdrag |
Buellerxt My 09' has the orange. Put a new set of tires on at 2000 miles and I poped off ALL the rear and front seals while it was all apart. VERY LITTLE grease and it was a Blue clearish looking grease. I stuffed them full of ye ole trailer bearing grease and away I went. Grease was fliging out for about 200 miles but it finally stopped and after my 1300 miles in Arkansas the seals had a little grease around them but no more than any other bike I have had that just got abused for 4 days. Fingers crosses. New rubber in about 500 miles so we will see what the bearings look like then. | ||
| Buellmeister57 |
The bike has been ridden in the rain a good bit, I NEVER spray water at the bearings when washing it. I think the dealer said the bearings (rear wheel) would have been about $35 but were covered under warranty. The front tire will be worn out soon, I'll check those bearings too. | ||
| Buellerxt |
Cool, Bdrag, I'll be looking forward to your update. Thanks. | ||
| Buellmeister57 |
gamdh, Thanks for the info, I'll check before I install the rear wheel. | ||
| Buellerxt |
Thanks, Buellmeister57. Hopefully the 'blacks' will perform better and your fronts are okay. | ||
| Gamdh |
no problem... they look like this  | ||
| Ronmold |
Drill a "weep" hole, 3/32" into the hub for ventilation. There's a post somewhere here on it. | ||
| Whisperstealth |
Just changed out tires build date of Aug/08. Has orange bearings. They seemed good, and I put them back in. How do you repack them?, thought you couldn't Can I call a dealer, give them my VIN, and have them give/ship me new bearings? | ||
| Buellerxt |
Won't a weep hole let water in? | ||
| Ronmold |
Yes possibly, but at least it will come in the weep hole instead of being sucked past the bearing seals (which are intended for dust not water) where it can't get out. A small hole would pass little water unless there was a pressure difference and the hole would cause the air pressures to equalize. Centrifugal force would expel water if the hole was at the outer most edge. Air exchange is mainly what the hole is for. Again this is all theory. | ||
| Oldwesterncowboy |
http://www.badweatherbikers.com/buell/messages/142 838/379324.html http://www.badweatherbikers.com/buell/messages/142 838/405345.html | ||
| Jphish |
Manual suggests a thin coat of antiseize on axle - its a good idea. Also pre-emtively changed out my red bearings to black ones @ 5K mi. (front & rear) & pop seals and relube every tire change, then seal gap with antiseize. 25K mi - no problems. | ||
| Buellerxt |
Good to have you back, Jphish. Still on your trip or back home? How did the Uly perform? Thanks. | ||
| Rcinclt |
Anyone ever had any issues with the front wheel bearings? There has always been a lot of talk about the rear but I can not recall reading about anyone having issues with the front. | ||
| Froggy |
Fronts do fail, but they are few and far between. | ||
| Jphish |
Hey Buellerxt - Got home Sun - good to be back. Uly performed darn near flawlessly for 12,847 mi. 1 little glitch, but no catastrophys. will provide a short write up, without excruciating detail, on some observations & things I learned. Chow, j | ||
| Buellerxt |
Wow! What a trip! I look forward to your trip report. | ||
| Towpro |
I just pulled the original wheel and tire off the back of my 07 and replaced it with n 2010 wheel, axle and new tire. On the axle there was a little rust deposit built up on the inside edge of the LS (rotor) bearing. The axle also looks like water was migrating in between the axle and bearing on the LS. The (orange) bearings still feels good on both sides. The axle was dry. Grease on the axle might help stop this little bit of water migration. | ||
| Buellmeister57 |
UPDATE Picked up the wheel from the dealer today, they had the bearings overnighted from another dealer. Gotta give them credit for that. They are KBC with black seals. When I got the wheel home I noticed the spacer in the center of the wheel has about .010 freeplay. Do the bearings need to be pressed in more? | ||
| Mark_weiss |
I had fronts go bad at about 20k miles. The issue was intrusion of very fine grit. The grease in the bearings looked nice and transparent. The bearings could have been clean and reused if it was necessary. BTW: When repacking bearings, DON'T fill the entire bearing cavity. All that you need is enough grease to thoroughly cover the rolling elements. If you don't leave plenty of airspace, bearing heating will force grease past the seals and then bearing cooling will draw crud in. Mark SE AZ | ||
| Smolt |
Speaking of bearings, has anyone had or heard of bearing problems with the 2010 wheel design? | ||
| Dio |
No reports of failures on the '10 that I'm aware of yet. |
