advice on wheel bearings!

[Stromtrooper james]

advice on wheel bearings

I came back from my trip to st ives yesterday and about 25 miles in to my trip home to Derby a nasty sound started coming from the rear end of my bike. I pulled over to have a look and could not see anything that was making the sound. as I was still so far from home and had no centre stand I needed to get back and take it all apart to have a look. the noise kept happening at low speed so I kept my speed at 70mph all the way home on the motorway and only stopped for petrol. (I have no breakdown cover)

luckily the bike got my home safe and sound but when I took the wheel off my bike to have a look bearing literally fell from my sprocket carrier.

so my problem is I need to remove the outer ring of the bearing that is left in my sprocket carry before I can fit a new one.

while I'm at it I'm also going to do the two wheel bearing as well.

any one got any advise on how to go about this or what not to do.

thanks in advance

ps. il try and get some pictures up.

[mr_diver]

Take an old all metal screwdriver or blunt small chissel and a hammer and smack the outer race out from the other side.
The same idea for the wheel bearings.
The middle spacer will move a little for you to access the inner race to hit.
I'd change the front bearings while I was there.
Did this a month ago on my bike. Took about 2 hours, but I've done a few bearings before.

[mr_diver]

Read the service manual before putting the new ones in as the bits have to go in in a specific order for each wheel.

[Juvecu]

You might want to pack out your cush rubbers with some bicycle inner tube. If the sprocket carrier has a lot of lateral play it will stress the bearing. Packing the cush rubbers will help to reduce the play.

Get a good quality bearing, it's an odd size (Suzuki might try to tell you that you can only get it from them), but you can get it from www.marksman-ind.com fairly quickly and for a decent price. Get a "KOYO 62/32DDU Rubber Sealed Deep Groove Ball Bearing 32x65x17mm", that's exactly what I used when I replaced mine and it's still good after 50k miles. KOYO are a good brand despite sounding a bit dodgy, AFAIK it's a Japanese brand, correct me if I'm wrong

+1 to Diver's advice of doing all the wheel bearings while you're at it.

Rear wheel bearing are 20x47x14mm, you need 2 and I used "SKF 62042RSH Sealed Deep Groove Ball Bearing 20x47x14mm" from www.simplybearings.co.uk

Front wheel bearings are 17x40x12mm, you need 2 and I used "SKF 62032RSH Sealed Deep Groove Ball Bearing 17x40x12mm", also from Simply Bearings.

You will also need some seals, a dust seal for the sprocket carrier hub, a dust seal on the rear wheel right side and a dust seal on the front wheel right side. I don't have the part numbers to hand, but can get them if you can't find them. I called Fowlers in Bristol with the Suzuki part numbers (I don't trust them to look it up themselves) and had them send them to me. The seals will cost you about £15 + postage so get the OEM ones rather than trying to find a pattern part.

I bought sealed bearings rather than the unsealed ones Suzuki uses, The sealed ones keep all the crap out, for the little extra cost vs increased service life and less hassle it's a no brainer


ps. The info is only for the old shape Wee, not sure if it applies to the Vee or Glee (though I think the rear wheel is the same on all models.)

pps. Moved to V-Strom Specific Discussion section.

[Stromtrooper james]

thanks for all the responses managed to get my bearing and seal for about £30 from a local bearing manufacture.

I also managed to get the bearings out of the wheel hub with ease.

however the bearing that is stuck in my sprocket carrier I have sent off to a local steel worker to cut it in half as the tempitur of riding my back home when the bearing was totally shot has pretty much welded it on the the carrier.

so all in all I will be back on the road tomorrow if all goes well.

thanks Juvecu for moving me to the right place.

[hookie]

I'm surprised at the failure of the sprocket carrier bearing on a bike with such a low mileage and it might be worth checking all components in the whole back wheel to make sure nothing else is amiss and they're assembled correctly when you rebuild it all. As has already been suggested check the cush drive rubbers and if worn either replace them or pack them out. Also make sure the chain is still OK and adjusted properly as if it had been too tight this may have contributed to the early bearing failure.

[greywolf]

Make sure the #10 spacer is present and the wider end faces toward the sprocket carrier and away from the wheel. If it is missing or backwards, the bearings will die early. I have heard of one case where #13 was missing but that is very unlikely and would not affect the sprocket carrier bearing. It's good you had the outer bearing shell professionally removed from the sprocket carrier. With the inner race separated from it, there is no place to apply force on it. It would have to be cut or have a piece tack welded across it to be removed.

[mr_diver]

At 41k miles my right rear wheel bearing had about 3mm of play and the left side about 1mm. The carrier bearing looked good as new with no play and the other bearings showed quite allot of rust.
Front was good as new but all were replaced.
The cush rubbers had now wear and I sti struggle to seperate carrier from the wheel.

[Stromtrooper james]

thanks for all the tips

the diagram u have sent me greywolf is the one I've been following.

also my mileage on my profile is very out of date.

before I when to st ives my rear wheel had about 4mm play in it left to right so this will be the underlying  cause of the problem I think.

il up date my profile now and let you know when I'm back on the road again

[Jacko]

#13 on the diagram is the inner spacer, without it the entire 100nm force of the spindle is taken by the inner races of the two wheel bearings, I would say that's very bad, I've never heard of that spacer missing on anything. I'd say a bearing wouldn't last very long under those circumstances.

Don't do the front wheel bearings unless they need replacing, needless work.

[Stromtrooper james]

got everything sorted!!!!  the sprocket bearing carrier cost me £10 to repair and a full set of rear bearings cost me £28.  so I'm now a much happier bunny!  


thank you for all the advice and tips!