| Author | Message | ||
     Titusand |
My P3 has been making a ticking sound, so I took it into my shop, and the mechanic informed me that the pulley side bearing had worn through, and the wheel was damaged. He said, get a replacement wheel, and I'll install it. The bike now has 10,500 miles. Question: Is that out of the ordinary? Should I plan on changing out the rear bearings every 3rd oil change? That doesn't seem right. | ||
| Cgent |
My 2002 just turned 10,000 miles ... no bearing problems as yet ... I've been concerned about the belt ... looks fine, but I'd hate to have that thing wrap itself around the rear wheel at highway speeds. What year is your BLAST! ??? | ||
| Gearheaderiko |
Normal, more or less. Some years had soft wheel hubs and although the bearing was still good, the hub would wear and the bearing would still be good. Bearings do go bad and will wear out ANY hub if left bad long enough. Replacing bearings "just because" is a bad idea as you will prematurely wear out the hub (steel hubs don't usually wear out, but the softer alloys do). Bearings are not a weak link and can go bad for a variety of reasons. So it's important to consider is just the hub worn? is the bearing actually bad? OR is it the belt actually making the ticking noise? Reasonably worn hubs can be fixed reliably with JB Weld (seriously). I've had repaired worn hubs, seemingly bad bearings (seem crunchy after sitting a while) all race track tested under high heat conditions without a single failure. There isn't a needed big concern about bearings going bad. | ||
| Titusand |
2004. The mechanic said that the bearing basically fell out, and that I needed to search for a rear wheel. | ||
| Gearheaderiko |
Well, from what I know about the wheel bearings I'll assume the bearing was still good and the hub was worn. As long as its not too far gone it can be fixed with JB weld. I am curious if the bearing was actually bad. Blast wheels are up on eBay regularly. | ||
| Titusand |
I don't see how the bearing can be good yet the hub worn... | ||
| Gearheaderiko |
It happens. The hub was made of a material too soft and the bearing recess on the sprocket side would enlarge. It has more to do with the wheel being pulled forward when power is applied and not the actual spinning of the wheel. It's a common problem that has been detailed here numerous times! Several of us tried various ways to rehab the wheel and JB Weld did the trick! The JB Weld acts as a hardening liquid shim taking up the slop in the hub. Repeated bearing replacement will also wear out the bearing bore in the hub, but that's not the usual reason for the hub wear. | ||
| Titusand |
Hmm... Maggie the Magster drove 55,000 miles with no wheel replacement, could I have done something wrong when I removed and replaced the rear wheel? | ||
| Gearheaderiko |
Maybe, maybe not. Overtorquing the axle nut can caused premature failure. Beating the acle in and out of the wheel can cause failure. Overzealous cleaning of the wheel when it's on (and especially off) the bike can get water in the bearings a shorten bearing life. If you got one of the 'soft' wheels aggressive take offs can contribute to hub wear. Was the bearing actually bad? Did you see it? | ||
| Titusand |
The outside wall began to spin within the wheel, and wore an oblong shape into the hub. | ||
| Gearheaderiko |
It happens, but was the bearing bad? | ||
| Titusand |
The bearing was good according to the mechanic. I'll be picking up the used parts next week! | ||
| Gearheaderiko |
It didnt spin. There was a batch of rear wheels that had soft hubs. It could very often be fixed with JB Weld (I know, I've done it and raced on it!) | ||
| Titusand |
I hope that puts an end to my loose bearings, normally my own bearings are loose enough as it is! I haven't heard any P3 owner who needs to replace a wheel every 10,000 miles, so this should be the end of it. Also, apparently, the front rubber motor mount was of a bad design? and the replacement part should be an updated design? I had to change that at about 5,000 miles. | ||
| Gearheaderiko |
Not necessarily a bad design, but it has been updated at least once. The new one is a lot stiffer. You may or may not have gotten the updated part. But if either is installed wrong it will fail prematurely  | ||
| Titusand |
Installed wrong? I would think that would be essentially limited to torque issues, correct? | ||
| Gearheaderiko |
Yes. | ||
| Buellistic |
IMHO the rear wheel bearings are one of the weak points of the BLAST !!! When "i" got mine, one of the first PRODUCT IMPROVEMENTS was to remove the rear(& front) wheel bearings and go to a BEARING SUPPLY STORE and get the best bearings they could obtain for me !!! "i" then removed the bearing seals and repacked them with the best wheel bearing grease "i" could buy and put the seals back in !!! Then "i" torque'ed the axle nut to the proper torque. IT IS IN THE FACTORY SERVICE MANUAL THAT YOU SHOULD HAVE FOR YOUR YEAR/MODEL BLAST !!! (Message edited by buellistic on July 28, 2013) | ||
| Ezblast |
The front isolator is a bear to get right torquing to spec. EZ | ||
| Bumblebee |
Ugh. I had that happen, didn't damage the wheel but made a mess of the bearing. All Balls racing has replacements for a good price. In my case the bike had 1500 miles when it did this. I don't think it's miles, just the quality of the bearing, or what's gotten into it. (Message edited by Bumblebee on July 29, 2016) |
