midnightcafe
Been Around the Block
If you ever buy a decrepit motorcycle, inspection of the wheel bearings should be near the top of priorities if you plan on riding it. I’ve never replaced wheel bearings so I first checked the manual, which informatively wrote: “replace the bearings if questionable.” Thanks Clymer! It’s funny how repair manuals list an order of processes for a motorcycle in assumed pristine condition. They seem to miss out on the stages where you must restrain yourself from kicking the motorcycle over and throwing tools across the room in your search for the solution to any number of missteps. A brief instruction such as “remove mounting bolts” can easily turn into several hours’ work if said bolts are corroded/galled/stripped, etc.
The fellows over at the GS Resources forum gave helpful suggestions and one even wrote a guide to replacing wheel bearings. I attempting it, but came up short. Here are my suggestions to the guide:
-use the thickest threaded rod you can pass through the bearing ID. 3/8” bent like spaghetti under tension.
-forget the anchor bolt idea. Push the bearing spacer to the side and chisel the bearings free (as one GS rider put it, ‘go caveman on them!’).
-be sure the bearing surface wasn't marred from the hammering
- don’t use the bullshit washers from your corner hardware store. THICK THICK washers!
The fellows over at the GS Resources forum gave helpful suggestions and one even wrote a guide to replacing wheel bearings. I attempting it, but came up short. Here are my suggestions to the guide:
-use the thickest threaded rod you can pass through the bearing ID. 3/8” bent like spaghetti under tension.
-forget the anchor bolt idea. Push the bearing spacer to the side and chisel the bearings free (as one GS rider put it, ‘go caveman on them!’).
-be sure the bearing surface wasn't marred from the hammering
- don’t use the bullshit washers from your corner hardware store. THICK THICK washers!
-use heat to drop the first bearing, not the second-you’ll bake the bearing on the other side.
-second bearing: grease the inner surface and tap the bearing with a ball peen hammer and brass drift on the outer race edge (NEVER the inner race), just enough to get it level.
-second bearing: grease the inner surface and tap the bearing with a ball peen hammer and brass drift on the outer race edge (NEVER the inner race), just enough to get it level.