wheel bearing failure

[firefighter1c57]

Front wheel bearing, 8 month old. Cage is broken, grease contains metal shavings.

So, if I over torqued the front axle, could that have caused the failure?

I have two large torque wrenches, well, three to be honest, but I'm unsure of the calibration of one of them. Ok, back to the two I use, one is click type, one is deflecting beam. Well, I forgot the click type doesn't click in reverse, and the front axle is reverse thread.

So... I'm not sure how far I torqued it to. It felt like it was "tight" and taking forever to click when I remembered that wrench doesn't click in reverse. May have over torqued, may not have. I removed the axle and retorqued with the deflecting beam wrench to the correct torque.

Now, about two months or so later, I've noticed my front end feeling vague. Tore the front end apart today, and found the bearing rough, so I pulled the bearing seal to have a look.

 

[GAXB9R]

Seems like you have answered your own question. Where did you buy the bearings?

 

[firefighter1c57]

they were the Harley updated bearings, black seals. That said, I just found All Balls for 11.14 shipped here

Yea, I think that's probably what happened to them... was tossing out some info and looking to see opinions

 

[twobuells]

After my rear wheel bearings failed i wouldnt even think of using a off brand bearing like the stock ones. No in my opinion you did not ruin the bearings when you over torqued them because you didnt ride the bike while it was possibly too tight. The inner bearing spacer in my rear wheel is several thousands longer than the space between the bearings if both were seated all the way in the hub. Is the front wheel the same in that the spacer is longer than the distance between the bearings?

 

[firefighter1c57]

the front spacer is. That said, you can see on the seal that it was indeed damaged from the axle pushing on it/twisting. More than likely, this is what broke the cage. Cage being broken contributed to the bearing failing.



Now, how do I get them out?

 

[twobuells]

If you have a TIG welder or a friend with one run a beed around the outer race where the balls used to go. It shrinks the race and it falls out.