Wheel Bearing Replacement

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Nelsonmd
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Ok, so here's my write-up for the wheel bearing install:

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All Balls Instructions

To get started, remove the front wheel. From there, you can just pull on the speedometer clutch and the whole piece will come off revealing the below...
Image

In this pic, the grease seal has been pry'd up a little bit. Directly underneath the grease seal is a thin stamped metal ring called the clutch retainer. Be careful when prying the grease seal out to make sure you dont damage the clutch retainer. I kinked mine, so I ordered a new one from Bike Bandit ($3.17). Pull out the grease seal, clutch retainer, and meter clutch ring and the bearing will be fully exposed.

I found it easier to drive out the clutch-side bearing first as you can get more of a lip on the inside bearing race than on the other side. When it pops out, the spacer tube will fall out right behind it, and you will have lots of space to drive the other side bearing out.

To put the new bearings in, you will need to use the old bearing race or a perfectly sized socket. I found the old bearing very easy to use. Take an angle grinder with a cutting wheel and cut a slit through the outer race of the old bearing and then push out the bearing and inner race. Here's mine:
Image
I also cleaned up the outer edge as there was a little lip there that would have scratched the bearing mating face on the wheel. With the slit in the race, you can use it to drive the new bearing in and it will be easily removed (on the non-clutch side the wheel-side bearing mating surface is taller than the bearing, so if you don't have the slit, then the driving bearing will get pressed in itself).

So then you can drive the new bearings in. I suggest doing the non-clutch side first as I had depth problems on the clutch side. Once you have the non-clutch side bearing in, put the spacer back in, then press in the clutch-side bearing. I had some issues with this side bearing...

When I pressed the bearing in, the spacer inside was clamped down and the bearings wouldn't move easily (this puts stress on the inner races, which can easily ruin the bearing). I think that there might be a tolerance issue in my bearing to bearing stack-up or with the spacer. It looks like I just need to not drive the clutch-side bearing in as far as it can go; a tiny difference in depth means alot of binding or none. Below are pics of the bearing at full depth and the deepest non-binding depth I could achieve. It's hard to see the difference, but it's there. Be sure that both bearings are actually touching the spacer, or you will get stress on the inner races when you tighten down the axle.

Full Depth:
Image

Proper Depth:
Image
This might actually be a little bit too far out, as you need to make sure the spacer is just touching the inner race. I will be more careful when I get the new bearing set.

Another note: On the non-clutch side, the new grease seal doesn't sit flush like the old one.
Image

I noticed that the grease seal that comes with the All Balls Bearing kit is thicker than the tock one, which explains why it isn't sitting flush.

Stock on the left, All Balls seal on the right:
Image

So I ordered a new set of bearings, and will have to be careful to not drive it all the way in when they come in. I thought about trying to make a thin spacer to put under the bearing, but I am not sure how I could make that as it would be very thin. Also, I will be contacting All Balls about the grease seal thickness to see if they have a different seal of the proper thickness. I'll post their response here.
Last edited by Nelsonmd on Wed Dec 07, 2011 1:17 pm, edited 3 times in total.
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