It's my understanding these don't last long. Don't forget to use a torque wrench when snugging the axle. Use american made bearings if you can.
So I took off my rear wheel in order to put on a new tire. I used my No Mar changer that I just picked up and it worked great. After mounting the tire I needed to balance the wheel. I begin to look and feel of the bearings and they seem extremely tight and stiff. I can barely turn them with my fingers. I'm guessing it's time to put in a couple of bearings also. Any recommendations on brand...OEM or aftermarket? Any tips on removing these? With only 7700 miles, should these bearings be bad? Is this normal wear pattern for XB's?
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Last edited by lancruza; 01-01-2020 at 04:11 PM.
It's my understanding these don't last long. Don't forget to use a torque wrench when snugging the axle. Use american made bearings if you can.
Hey 'Cruza, Buell wheel bearings can go 50k or 5k and there's a million rumors to why that is.
If they are hard to turn by hand, but still smooth you should be OK. Personally I replace mine whenever I put on new tires. It seems extreme, but I've never had a bad bearing ruin a trip since!
outthere is right that proper axle torque and procedure are critical for bearing life.
Read the manual, but the cliffs are:
Front: 20ft/lbs, jounce the suspension, rotate the wheel, then 40/ft lbs.
Rear 25ft/lbs, rotate the wheel, back off 2 turns, then 50ft/lbs.
I have found that most axles are WAAAY over-torqued and could possibly even crush the bearing spacer. If the inner spacer is even slightly squished, the outer race could bottom in the wheel hub and make the roller bearings side loaded even at proper torque and will fail in a short time Continually until you replace the spacer. You can measure it with calipers, but the spacer is cheap.
I'm so jealous of the your No-Mar.
Memories! Desperate times called for desperate measures
Montana ain't much for service stations, but wow those guys at that shop were nice! They let me rummage around their 'toolbox' and get what I needed to build that all-thread-socket-washers bearing race press, because riding 100 miles on bearing races with no balls in them tends to weld crap together (and be very, very, frightening). Please don't ask about that hammer thing
Only to help you feel better about it and lift the weight off your shoulders, it's time to give it up about the hammer thing!
Some time the bearings can feel rough only cuz they are making contact with the inner tube spacer and not actually be the bearing , But when in doubt pound them out with a Hammer? they are cheap.
"I'm not comfortable with we'll make it fit."
[QUOTE=Cooter;617658]"I'm not comfortable with we'll make it fit."
Think about what you just said, You are a tall man ,I am sure you are very comfortable with making things fit !