Front Wheel Bearings

[dna9656]

Let's face it; Yamaha uses serviceable (ones you have to repack) bearings all over the bike in support of the dealerships' maintenance shops. Who among us want to tear down the bike to repack those bearings when you can get sealed bearings and pretty much say good by to the tear downs and just check for wobble and when you find the bearing is good you move on?

So given the age of my '84 and being concerned I might put an incompatible grease in the bearing I wanted to change the bearings. So I thought I would remove them, clean them, repack, re-install and be a happy camper.

Not to be.

I was advised here and on other forums to just replace them. After all they aren't expensive as motorcycle parts go (so long as you don't buy them at the Stealer) so why not? I have replaced wheel bearings before, I have fought stuck inner races from spindles with hammers, chisels, heat, pullers and presses and have always won.

Boy; aren't things different on a motorcycle?!

So I PM'ed several of you excellent people for guidance after checking on what had been posted here first. Not much has been posted.

I got a blind slide hammer pilot bearing puller on loan from the local Auto Zone. I have a nice assortment of punches, a map gas and propane torch, I even have a bearing and seal driver kit; as I mentioned I have been down the bearing road before.

I set the wheel on 2" X 4"s to keep the rotors off the concrete, got the seal out, squirted some Kroil (penetrating oil) around the outer race and got the puller.

I installed it as best I could and attempted to remove the bearing. I did that for a long time because the fingers didn't seat well in between the inner spacer and the inner race of the bearing. I even considered grinding the fingers on the puller to make them fit better. Flipping the tire/wheel assembly over and taking my trusty hammer and punch in hand I whacked the inner race from the other side... nothing... the space between the spacer and race was so small the punch wouldn't stay in place. Well I did that few more times to no avail. I tried some other tools that weren't designed for this job too.... I got on the forum and got pretty much the advice I expected (thank you all for your time and input!!!) and thought about heating the wheel up to expand the outer diameter of the bearing housing, it being made of aluminum made me nervous about taking this course of action. Aluminum has a lower melting point than iron or steel and can be sensitive to heat.

I knew about freezing the new bearing to help get it in the hole as well.

So I cut my losses, called the Stealer and was told that job requires a "special tool". Oh what a SHOCK that was! NO KIDDING? a SPECIAL TOOL?! Well why doesn't the book address that? What special tool could this be? In Yamaha's wisdom that is all CLASSIFIED INFORMATION! After all Yamaha has to support it's dealers. That's why there is a surprising LACK of info in the FACTORY SERVICE manual. WE all know that, that's why most of are here on this forum and others like it. There HAS TO BE another manual that Yamaha provides to only to it's dealers, some of that info is available through forums like this one but the coverage is not yet complete.

The Dealer charges 1 hour labor to change the bearings and seals I provided so long as I removed and installed the wheel. I thought about installing the bearings myself... I have to ride to work Monday at 0440 hours (that's almost 5 AM for you civilians) so I copped out and paid the MAN; and from where I sit it was $ well spent.

My hands aren't torn up, my stress level is down and all that remains is puttin' the $%#*@ thing back on!

Thanks again to all that helped out!

Edited February 1, 2015 by dna9656

[eagleeye]

Did you get to see that special tool?

[dna9656]

The special tool remains CLASSIFIED.

I'm betting it's a super secret, super sexy adapter on a bench press, some sort of wing thing like those spring loaded toggle bolts we use in blind holes, you know you drill a hole and poke the bolt and nut through the hole, the wing nut collapses as it goes through the hole and expands once it's free of the hole on the other side....

I'm sure they got something like that. Maybe they press the inner spacer out (using it to push the bearing out) or they could use a press to pull the bearing out too...I would guess....

[Venturous Randy]

When I changed my front bearings, I simply pushed the spacer in the middle off to one side and used a drift and hammer on the bearing. Once that bearing was out, I flipped it over and removed the spacer and hammered the other bearing out.

The one thing I did not do was use the rotors for support. I put my 2X4 on the outside of the rotors.

I am surprised that the dealer was willing to install non OEM bearing you did not buy there.

RandyA

[dna9656]

How did yuou "push the spacer in the middle off to one side" do you mean you pressed it against the opposite inner race? Man I could not get any kind of meaningful purchase with my punch on that spacer. Maybe my spacer is a tad longer than some others.... OR (I bet) some of those spacers have been shortened to make this job a LOT easier...

[BlueSky]

Betcha they don't have a special tool at all in the way you are thinking. Probably just done it a few times and know how hard to hit with the punch and hammer.

[Kirby]

One thing I found out when changing mine as Venturous Randy has done it the same way as I did. Make sure you use a drift punch( or even a 1/2 inch diameter piece of shaft) that has a good square corner ground on it. By that I mean it should not be rounded off from years of use. If it is you'll probably never get the spacer over to the side far enough for the punch to catch on the bearing. It's a tough job and they are in there pretty tight, but that's what you want a bearing to be in a housing. Or else it will spin and wear out the housing.

[Venturous Randy]

How did yuou "push the spacer in the middle off to one side" do you mean you pressed it against the opposite inner race? Man I could not get any kind of meaningful purchase with my punch on that spacer. Maybe my spacer is a tad longer than some others.... OR (I bet) some of those spacers have been shortened to make this job a LOT easier...

 

My bearings had never been replaced. I think I may have just stuck a large Phillips screwdriver into where the spacer is and just wedged it over and that gave me enough area to hit the bearing. I don't remember the spacer being much of an issue.

Randy

[Ozlander]

Still have the original bearing in my '89. But, I have changed some in other bikes.

I think that if you can't move the spacer, then the bearings don't have enough wear to require replacing.

YMMV

 

PS; I keep the outside of the bearings packed with grease to keep water out of them, front and rear.

[dna9656]

Well guys while I do have a couple of spare wheels on hand; I just didn't have the confidence to proceed to whack the livin' you know what outta that bearing. I have had a rough summer working on stuff, nothing seems to have gone right; most every decision backfired. It took the summer to get a timing belt changed on the Sebring and due to so much carbon build (it fell into the cylinders from the combustion face of the head) up in the cylinders that the engine wouldn't rotate 360 during the hand rotation step of the job. It took a LONG time to learn that Mitsubishi did not properly place 1 timing mark on the engine so caution dictates finding out what was going on. I had to get the heads re-surfaced; then 2 weeks after the job was finished i had to pull the rear head back off to replace a cam seal. I have never paid so much $$ for gaskets...the head gasket for this motor is around $40.00 each; then I got a check engine light that turned out to be a shorted out spark plug... The 3.5 is my first interference engine, the only tech data available was the factory manual and and the version I got wasn't complete, Haynes JUST released their book the week I started the job and the on-line version was the only version available. The cool thing was the computer in the garage and the 40" monitor I got, I can really make the pictures big, and by the way the pics in the Yamaha book are pretty good on a 40" screen.....

Edited April 16, 2015 by dna9656