Buell front wheel bearing replacement, with pics

[jossi]

Hi Uly i work as machine technician at SKF in Gothenburg Sweden , the grease in the sealed bearing is calculate for the hole bearings life , if it was bigger very expensive bearing you can take it out and wash it and put some new grease in it but you must now exactly how many gram that bearing should have
when you put too much grease in the bearing, you raise the temperature inthe bearing and when its work temperature raises the little freeplay or what you call it disapears can it seize up

Regards

Jossi Sweden

 

[uly luigi]

I didn't think it was a good idea to mess with a sealed bearing

 

[xtreme6669]

I'm surprised by that statement by the SKF guy... It's very common to have to repack the sealed bearings in bottom brackets of mountain bikes or you will go thru them fairly quickly same with a lot of bearing applications.. I have had very good luck with bearing life by cleaning and repacking sealed bearings on all types of bikes from pedal bikes to MX and of course street bikes too... I can honestly say now that I think about it that I have never has a bearing that's been maintained go bad... only bearings that came sealed and were never touched.

 

[jossi]

Hi in mountain bikes is not that speeds on the bearings , i dont care you can repack if you want but i dont do it , why do you think they dont fill the bearings from the beginning ?? , i think the problem is how you wash the bike

Regards
Jossi
Sweden

 

[williegoat]

Luigi, is that the Harbor Freight bearing puller?
I need to do front bearings on my tuber and I was considering buying one, but if it wont fit some bearings, including the XB, there is not much point.

 

[uly luigi]

Yeh, its the harbor freight one, does a pretty good job for the rears, may have worked on the fronts, but I think I swole it up a little too much doing the rears after a complete, catastrophic failure, they had siezed in the hub, one only had three balls left after axle removal that I had to find on the ground

 

[williegoat]

Thanks for the write-up. I just put my new front wheel bearings back in my S3.
After some initial persuasion with a hammer and drift, the HF puller successfully extracted the old ones.
I left the wheel in the house for a couple of days, where it was warm and the bearings were waiting in the freezer.
I used a rolled up TP tube to keep the spacer centered, heated the wheels with a hair drier, introduced the cold bearings to the wheel and they almost crawled in on there own, just to get warm.

 

[jk0311]

What is the part number for the front bearing? i have seen many different posts with different numbers and im trying to find the right one so i can order it today. i have an 07 ss if that makes a difference. NAPA says they have 6005 2RSJ in stock thanks guys

 

[jossi]

SKFs old 6005 2RS1 the new 6005 2RSH
if i remember right

 

[Dingo]

changed bearings yesterday...no big deal old ones came out easy and the newones got in with no problems...had the bearings in the freezer for 30 min...
old ones have some rust and if you can see one has more grease then the other..but exactly this one wont turn freely...

new pt no. SKF 6005 2RSH

 

[jeepnh]

What is the deal with Buell bearings?
I'm new to Buell but been around motorcycles 40+ years and I've never heard so much conversation about bearings. I'll confess JPN bikes, but high performance and high mileage... general question, what is different??

 

[Dingo]

its maybe because the Bearings are outside of the rimm and more exposed to water, dust etc. Japanese Bikes have them more inside and most of them using a extra Dust seal to protect Bearing..

 

[jeepnh]

Thanks Dingo, makes sense.
Good thing the process is easy,--- seems like lots of occasions to 'practice'
Way back when, I was lacing up my own hubs & wheels to get better rim widths and dual discs etc, one the steps was making new axle wheel spacers. Anyway, when I lathed then up, I'd include a large metal conical 'dust/debris shield'.
Anyway, thanks again and GREAT Buell community.

BTW, is there a threshold / redesign /model date, after which tings are 'better' or,
'it-is-what-it-is' ....?

 

[Mark XB12r]

I was surprized to read all this too when I first joined. I have owned mine since 04 and have 31k miles on it with the original wheel bearings. I have had my wheel b's out before to get the wheels coated, when they were out I did repack em with grease. as a matter of fact i have done this many times on sealed bearings. I ride in all kinds of weather, rain or shine.

Most of your Jap bikes also have three bearings in the rear wheel. that helps prevent failure, and the fronts have additional dust seals

 

[level]

Due to my light front end vibration issue at highway speeds (+70 mph), I went ahead and picked up all three packages from all balls (steering, front, and rear). I'm planning on having my local shop do the work. My question is, how long should a "certified tech" plan for both wheel balance, front and rear bearing replacement, and steering head bearing replacement. The shop is quoting me $70/hr for labor. Just looking for a ballpark figure as an honesty benchmark.

 

[Alien]

I'd say no more than two hrs labor.

 

[snrusnak]

I'd say more than two hours. Probably 2 hours for the steering neck bearings(or at least 1 hour), then maybe another 2 hours for the wheel bearings. Might be a bit high of an estimate I just don't see the steering neck taking 1 hour then the wheels taking 30 min each.

 

[RamAirZ]

I could see 30 minutes a wheel if your talking about lifting the bike, removing the wheel and removing the bearings and reinstalling everything, I bet book time is 1-1.5hrs on ea (based on my experience on car related things and book time at the shop) and book time on the steering bearings is 4hrs if I recall when I checked at the local shops (was curious). You can get it done faster than that with a little know how. It depends on if your local mechanic is using book time or actual time. If he's going book time I'd ball-park it at 6hrs to be safe for everything. I know that seems high but remember, a good mechanic will get it done ALOT faster than that, that's how they make their money and a good mechanic can log 80hrs of work in a 40hr work week

 

[squidbuellie]

Your looking at about 4 hours of labor.....
yes it can be done in less then a quarter of the time, but thats what happens when your paying someone else to do it....
you have to think about all off the problems or complaints that come up...I.e you scratched my wheel, the bike still shakes because you go off of owners own stupid diagnoses and didn't check to see if the wheel was out of balance or theres a bent rim and so on.....

 

[RamAirZ]

^ yup nature of the business. I run my own shop and deal with that all the time. I know when I called the Harley Dealer over in Tally to get an idea on labor cost (was debating if I wanted to be lazy or not) and they quoted me 4hrs on just the steering bearings and the 2 main shops in PC said the same so that's why I was guessing higher because you have to include the wheel bearings too. But every shop is different so who knows