Garage Night TV has turned 10! Well, it’s our 10th episode, anyway. In this instalment, Pete replaces the rear wheel bearings on his Honda Africa Twin 750 - and gets a nasty shock when he finds what some previous mechanic has done in this department.
Sealed bearings. Great! They come from the factory with lots of lovely grease inside, and their own integral seals to make sure the grease stays in, and the muck stays out.
Right? WRONG! For me, the biggest revelation of this episode came when Trent popped open one of Pete’s new bearings and showed that inside was little more than a token smear of factory lubricant. So if you really care about those bearings lasting, it’s a good idea to check them - how to go about this is one of the numerous tips you’ll get by watching the video.
If there’s a lack of grease, you might consider adding some yourself. It’s not recommended to pack them solid, though, due to the possibility of overheating or hydraulic lock. There’s a bit of debate on this, but about 1/3 full of grease is one recommended figure.
A bike like Pete’s carries three bearings - two in the hub and one in the mysterious cush drive unit, which is bolted to the sprocket and meshes with the wheel hub. Depending on your bike, these might all be different sizes, or all the same. So make sure you’ve got the right part numbers when ordering.
Pete’s bike has been to India and back, so it’s picked up a few quirks along the way. At a roadside garage somewhere on the subcontinent is where Pete reckons it picked up a dodgy wheel bearing fitment. “It was definitely not me.” A likely story Pete!
All these bearings are a press or interference fit - they have to be forced into place, so pay attention when Pete explains how to do it without ruining the bearings and thereby defeating the purpose of replacing them.
- Waz
Ep 14, Dremel on a lathe: Rear suspension overhaul part 1
Ep 13: Mountain Madness 2009
Ep 12: KTM forks on a BMW part 2
Ep 11: KTM forks on a BMW F650
Ep 9: New spokes on an old wheel
Ep 8: Chain and sprockets part 2
Ep 7: Changing a chain and sprockets
Ep 6: Mountain Madness
Ep 5: Replacing steering head bearings
Ep 4: Wires, shocks and smoke
Ep 3: Sand, heat and nipples
Ep 2: Beads and bearings
Ep 1: Bikes, Blokes and Beer
Cheers fellas, very informative!
Very informative, chaps, but perhaps you should have mentioned to pump the brakes after spreading the pads - best done in the shed than out on the road the next day!!
And personally, I fit the bearings as they come out of the box, no worries about damaging a seal or mixing incompatible greases.
Keep up the good work, lads!
Execellent work. This is the most valuable site for newbie learning to fix his dual-sport. I am looking forward to see you doing carb cleaning/tuning and some motor stuff in next episodes.
I need my Garage Night fix… When is the next episode?
Hey Steve,
We got back in the garage last night and can promise some new episodes soon. The absolutely freezing and miserable winter here did curtail things but we are getting back into action. STICK WITH US!
Hi Waz.
When are we going to see some more Fant spannering. The Progs have gotten me out of a few holes over the past few months so keep up the good work guys.
Weather has been a bugger lately. I’ve spent the last few months waiting for her indoors to leave me alone so that I can empty, then re-organise my garage…. No chance. Maybe this weekend.
Anyway, ride safe.
Gary in sunny Berkshire
1987 & 1997 - Elefant 750
Hi guys!
Excellent site!!! Enjoyed every episode very helpful. Looking forward to see your next one. Cheers! Val from Dublin.
Thanks for a brilliant guide, I changed the bearings on my Africa Twin today. I had never done it before but after seeing the video I had no troubles getting it sorted. Thanks again!
Very informative. You might consider using a heat gun to expand the hub a bit before removing or installing a bearing. In addition, you can store your new bearing in the freezer, to cool it down, as well. Just a **little** bit of thermal expansion can make a big difference when trying to remove or install a bearing. I suspect that more bearings get damaged by folks removing the seals to add more greaase. They damage the seal, and potentially introduce contaminents and debris into the bearing. If you absolutely **have** to do it, perhaps it might be better to only remove the inner seal (the one inside, that faces the other bearing) since (perhaps) no dirt can get to the back side of the bearing.
Brian, nice to hear your opinions - I believe you may have some connection to the bearing trade? That’s a top tip about facing the disturbed seal inwards. Very sensible precaution.
Great video. Rear bearings on my Transalp are fkded, something I suspected after noticing riding on grooved tarmac where the whole back end felt like it was floating. Gonna extract the old ones and hot foot it down to my local bearing shop to match up some fresh ones. Thanks again, I have the shop manual but talk of special tools can be a bit off putting………..
Hi Mike, we are always happy to save a Transalp owner a few bob. Our stickers look particularly fetching on v-twin Hondas, by the way …
Hello guys, I’m new to tooling and instinctively shy away from having a go. However for the first time I fitted new front wheel bearings. My concern is that I might have driven the bearings in too tightly to the inner spacer causing the inner diameter of the bearings to hardly turn without some force from my finger. Should the bearing inners spin freely without too much finger pressure to get them to turn?
Great website and video tutorials by the way!
Hi PaulH. Well, when you try to rotate one bearing inner, the spacer should spin with it, as well the bearing inner on the other side. So you might get more resistance than you’d expect if you were just holding one bearing in your hand and spinning it. They should not spin loosely or freewheel - that would be a sign they’re really worn. But they should not be severely tight either.
Just make sure you didn’t a) drive against the inner bearing diameter when installing them, thereby causing damage, or b) over-pack the bearing with grease (no more than 1/3 full is one recommendation) c) badly misalign the inner spacer so it’s rubbing on the bearing seal (you can push the axle through to help line things up).
I’d suggest installing your wheel on the bike with the weight off it and the brakes out of the way so they’re not dragging on the disc. Then see how freely the wheel spins.
It shouldn’t really be possible to ‘over-drive’ the bearing so that it jams because of the spacer - the spacer will be the right width so that it’s held in place by the bearing inners when the bearings are seated in the hub.
Hope that helps. If you’re really unsure about it or feel it might not be safe then do see a mechanic about it.
Hi Paul,
Waz’s suggestion to refit the wheel to the bike (tighten the axle) and give it a spin (without the brake callipers attached) is a sound idea.
If the wheel spins freely for a number of revolutions (5 +) then I suspect everything is OK.
If it stops after 1/2 - 1 revolution, then something is wrong.
The only bike I’ve heard of with front wheel bearing spacer problems is the KTM 950 Super Enduro - the spacer on some of those bikes is too short which causes the bearings to be bind up when the axle is tightened - Spinning the wheel as described above is the way to detect that problem.
It can be a bit daunting working on your bike for the first time, but keep focused, use the right tool for the job and you can’t go too far wrong.
Thanks guys, my bike is an Yamaha RD500 so a little different from the bikes you seem to work on. Bearings were driven in with large socket on the outer edge of the bearing only, although I did have to knock out one bearing and refit which I did by knocking on the inner edge with a drift. The bearing looked ok to me upon inspection so I reused it. I am unable to fit wheel to bike at the moment because my forks are stripped waiting for rebuild. I will do as suggested, fit wheel and spin and see how it goes. I have to get the tyre refitted cause the tyre company has fitted tire wrong way round. During this they should be able to spin the wheel on their balancing machine to indicate if bearings are too tight? If so I could get that done this week.
Please continue disussion on the forum: link