Very slight lateral play in rear wheel...normal?

[MattP]

I was manually turning the rear wheel tonight looking at tread wear (yeah, it was that kind of night around my house ) when I noticed a *very* slight amount of play in the rear wheel. In other words, I can place my hands at 3 and 9, push/pull, and there's a little movement. Hard to quantify, but I'd say maybe between 1/16" and 1/8"...? Nothing is leaking, rides like a dream. Lugnuts are fine. Thanks!

[Tank]

Same here about 8000 miles ago, got steadly worse, just replaced pivot bearings and rear seal.... at a odomator reading of 101,956

[MattP]

Hmmm, good to know. I'll sure keep an eye on it. I just rolled over 31k on odometer.

[RFW]

NOT normal. If the play is in the rear bearings (as opposed to the swingarm pivots) it is caused by a worn wheel bearing. Wheel bearings are preloaded and have ZERO play.

 

Swingarm bearings are similarly preloaded and have zero play.

 

That said, my ol' K100RT has had half a millimeter of play in the rear end for several years. It also has a small amount of bearing bits stuck to the drain magnet when the oil is changed, but hasn't gotten any worse. So ya takes yer chances!

[ragtoplvr]

I just went thru this on my RS. My big ball bearing was pitting and wearing. I changed it.

 

Put finger between brake disk and caliper, if you feel movement it is the bearing. If you do not then it is the pivot bearings on swingarm.

 

If it is the carrier bearing, then changing it is not hard.

 

You can do that without removing the final drive from the bike.

 

Pulling the bearing is the only thing that requires special tools, a machine shop or the dealer can pull old one press new one in about 15 minutes labor. The gap between the bearing and back of the ring gear is not very wide, so a Chinese puller is not going to work unless modified with thin jaws. I went the machine shop route since dealer is 90 miles.

Parts cost under 200. Labor time about 4 hours plus time to deal with the bearing.

 

Mine has went about 2K miles now, knock on wood still seems tight.

 

Rod

[Mark K]

That's not normal. Low mileage wouldn't suggest the big bearing, however. Mine was replaced at 60k. It's a paperweight now. Must have been pitted because movement is rough. I replaced it when I noticed a tiny amount of play back there.

 

As mentioned, jamb your fingers behind the FD while someone else is moving the wheel. You will then be able to determine exactly where the play is coming from. I would guess it's the FD pivot bearings.

[MattP]

Thanks for the input. The movement does not appear to be the wheel in relation to the FD, but rather the wheel is solid to the FD, and the FD has a very slight lateral movement (~1/64"). From what I'm reading it sounds like maybe the FD pivot bearing? I'm sure if/as it gets worse I'll go ahead and replace it. Is this the part that some of you have replaced with a bushing from Rubber Chicken products?

[Boffin]

Those pivots are the ones that Rubber Chicken supply an alternative for. In the short-term it is worth re-torquing the pivots as they are taper bearings and it is possible to take up the slack in them.

 

Andy

[OoPEZoO]

Thanks for the input. The movement does not appear to be the wheel in relation to the FD, but rather the wheel is solid to the FD, and the FD has a very slight lateral movement (~1/64"). From what I'm reading it sounds like maybe the FD pivot bearing? I'm sure if/as it gets worse I'll go ahead and replace it. Is this the part that some of you have replaced with a bushing from Rubber Chicken products?

 

Yup....thats the ones. I replaced mine with the rubber chicken bushings (no affilition with my rubber chicken ) this past summer when my final drive lunched itself. I figured I would replace the pivot bearings while I had it off the bike. The bushings are top quality and come with easy to understand instructions. I installed them, rode about 600 miles, retorqued them, then promptly forgot about them (one less thing I have to worry about failing in the future). I would give them a big

[Bob_Minor]

Yup....thats the ones. I replaced mine with the rubber chicken bushings (no affilition with my rubber chicken ) this past summer when my final drive lunched itself. I figured I would replace the pivot bearings while I had it off the bike. The bushings are top quality and come with easy to understand instructions. I installed them, rode about 600 miles, retorqued them, then promptly forgot about them (one less thing I have to worry about failing in the future). I would give them a big

 

Keith, do you need to completely remove the FD to replace the pivot bearings?

[MattP]

Can someone PM me or post a link to anything that has instructions on how to re-torque the FD pivot bearing?

[OoPEZoO]

Keith, do you need to completely remove the FD to replace the pivot bearings?

 

I assume there might be a way to replace them without completely removing the FD, but it would be a royal PITA. You would have to find a way to remove the old bearings and press in the new bushings while the driveshaft is still in place. Not to mention you would be fighting the weight of the rear wheel the whole time. Doesn't sound like fun to me. Personaly, I would just remove the final drive.

[270]

Keith, do you need to completely remove the FD to replace the pivot bearings?

 

I assume there might be a way to replace them without completely removing the FD, but it would be a royal PITA. You would have to find a way to remove the old bearings and press in the new bushings while the driveshaft is still in place. Not to mention you would be fighting the weight of the rear wheel the whole time. Doesn't sound like fun to me. Personaly, I would just remove the final drive.

 

Impossible to replace without completely removing the drive, but it's very easy to do. Do a google, but you will need some heat (tourch or heat gun) to break the old loctite, a torque wrench, some new loctite, a little grease, some threaded rod, nuts and washers, and a socket to drive out the old bearings.

 

You can probably do it in about an 1.5-2 hours if you haven't done it before. It takes very little skill honestly. The torque wrench part is tricky, not because of the skill involved, but because technically you'll need two different wrenches; one for the bigger right side pivot bolt (160nm) and locking nut (160nm) and one for much less force for the left pivot (7-10nm) Span is too great. You CAN do the inside (left) pivot by feel relatively safely if you use the Rubber Chicken bearings as there is nothing to crush.

 

Sounds harder than it is all told.

 

Good luck!

 

Allen