Need some help!

[bajamxr77]

With my bike on front and rear stands I noticed that my front wheel does not spin freely. I thought, warped rotor, but when I losen the axle the wheel spins free. Torque the axle back to spec, and it has limited free spin again. My second thought was a bad bearing but it does not have any play vertical or lateral when torqued to spec.
There is currently nothing noticable when riding, or even pushing it around the shop, in fact had it not been for the front stand I wouldn't have noticed at all. However if it is a bearing going bad I would rather fix it now then break down on a road trip miles from home.
A good spin with the hand will only produce half to 3/4 rotation as compared to my wife's bike (an XB of the same year, nearly the same miles) her's will make 2-3 rotations. About 500 miles back I had both bikes' front wheels off for new tires and I cleaned and greased the axles before re-installing them. Any ideas or feedback will help.
-Thanks, Baja

 

[Jesse T]

That just might be your brake pads dragging a bit. I don't think mine spins much more than that...

 

[Mike Van V]

Yea..an easy thing to check..!
Remove the caliper, or back the pads off all the way away from the rotor.

The wheel should spin for 45 seconds to a minute with a healthy spin.
The only other thing...is the bearings.

About the bearings...
Make sure the aluminum spacer between the bearings is somwhat tight, with the wheel off the bike (FULLY unloaded). At least snug between the bearings.
If the spacer is too short, when you properly tighten the axle, it will put the two bearings into a "side" load bind that they were never designed for...and yes could fail at any time.

If the spacer isn't tight...time to buy new or make up one that has a proper width.

Last thing...it could just be bearings on the way out...or the pistons in the caliper aren't retracting properly and the caliper could use a rebuild..!

Mike

 

[bajamxr77]

Thanks for the replies guys. Question: If it were the brake pads would loosening the axle make a difference? I am leaning toward Mike's spacer idea, but I will pull the caliper first and try a good spin. Then I will check the spacer, if replacing the spacer I might as well do bearings too.

-Baja

 

[user_deleted]

mike and jesse are spot on. just remove the caliper and see if wheel spins freely. while you're working on it i would take paper towels or syring/turkey baster and remove the front master cylinder fluid, put cap back on, carefully put prying device in between brake pads, and push them along with the pucks back into the housings. that will break any corrosion or dirt in the caliper housing that might be causing the pistons to hang up. go back up to the cylinder, remove cap, clean out, install fresh dot 3 or 4..i prefer 4...and reinstall caliper then activate brake lever to push the pads back onto the caliper and recheck fluid level as it will be down. that often times freshens things up inside the caliper.

 

[bajamxr77]

Thanks lunaticfringe, I have a vacuum bleeder and can try draining and replacing the fluid. But what I still don't understand is if it were the brake causing the friction, why would the wheel spin freely when I loosen the axle, as stated in the initial post? Just want to know what I am missing. I thought I had already counted the brakes out before I posted. Now I am wondering again.