Right rear wheel bearing seating...

[Bonz]

I see jwoell posted a similar deal, but I wanted to start a new thread so my question/similar experience would show up and not wait to be found.

Apologies in advance for the redundancy...

I replaced the right rear bearing in my new to me 80 SG Special, and there was no way the bearing would seat any further in the wheel.

I cut the old bearing and used it as the driver for the new bearing. The new bearing decidedly bottomed out, as the tone the hammer made when it struck the "driver bearing" was telling me it was hitting an immovable object (i.e. no more room to go in further). I may as well have been hammering the driver bearing on a metal plate that was sitting on concrete. NO movement. Only thing that could have been holding up the show was the driver bearing hanging up on the cut out for the circlip, but the new bearing would have done it as well so I dismissed that as a possibility, plus the bearing edge is rounded a bit so nothing there to hang on.

BUT there is a gap as well between the bearing and spacer just like jwoell described. I could not hit this thing harder (within reason) and I made no progress by taking a drift and screwdriver on the outer edge of the new bearing to try and coax it in further. Just kept bouncing off like I was hitting a solid object.

Everything went back to together fine, and the circlip went in fine as well, which would tell me that the bearing was in far enough. Make sense?

Is it possible with what I described that I am just worrying about nothing, or do I have something to worry about?

When I took the old bearing out, the spacer had enough side play at the end to be pushed aside so I could hit the bearing to get it the heck out of the wheel. If it was lightly touching, it would not have moved anywhere near the amount it did.

While I'm at it, does the spacer flange sit flush with the end of the spacer, or should it slide down onto the spacer any amount? My flange is just a hair past flush down on the spacer.

You guys are making me neurotic! BUT still want to be safer vs. sorry.

[prometheus578]

That spacer flange can really sit almost anywhere. It's just there to help keep the spacer aligned during assembly.
Yes, there should be no space between the bearings and the spacer.
Without actually looking at it, I have no idea why you have this space.
Is it possable that the bearing on the other side isn't seated fully?

[Bonz]

The left side bearing was not touched in the process, so it is where it always has been. I just cleaned and re-packed it in the wheel since it was working fine and smooth spinning.

The gap is small, and I do not believe with all my good intentions, etc, that this right side bearing will move one bit more.

As I said, I was able to get movement of the spacer from the beginning of the process of driving out the right side bearing. I didn't have to "whack" the spacer as some posts suggest to get it to move to the side. For sure, as the bearing began to slide out of the right side, I got more side to side movement of the spacer, but there was enough initial movement to get the punch in there to hit the outer edge of the bearing. If it was touching, even lightly, it wouldn't have been that way IMO.

I've done enough stuff like this to feel pretty good that I got the bearing in as far as it would go.

I mean, it was a definite "I feel the bearing going in, tap, tap, tap" and then " It must be bottomed in there good because the hammer is just bouncing off the driver bearing now".

I worked my way around the edge of the driver bearing (since it has some give with the slot in it) with the hammer and then the same with an appropriate screwdriver on the outer edge of the new bearing. Absolutely no more to go is all I can tell... I got the new bearing from the dealer (Yamaha part) and the only difference from the old one is it is sealed on both sides.

I froze the new bearing to make it as easy as possible as well, and it doesn't make sense that it would hit such an abrupt stop without being seated.

Any more thoughts to share that will make me feel better (i.e. don't have to take the wheel off)?

Thanks!

[AlanB]

Hi Hbonser,

if you are sure that the new bearing is all the way in, but there is a gap, then the other side must have backed out ???

I have never heard of that happening before, but I would probably turn the wheel over, and give the "old" bearing a tap too, just to check that it sounds fully home; It sounds like you know how to tell!

AlanB

[prometheus578]

Most times, that spacer sits solidly against both bearings. Some times, it's loose a bit.
When removing bearings, one sticks a punch of drift pin into the axle hole and sort of hits the drift pin at an angle to shift that spacer over, etc.
What this does, this shifting, is that it cants the spacer a bit... and pushes out one bearing or the other, thus giving the spacer room to move.
The spacer isn't just sliding sideways, but tilting... and in this tilting, one edge will be riding up, in "effect" making the spacer longer.
This effect will be pushing a bearing out from it's fully seated position.
It's very possable that, when shifting the spacer to remove the bearing on one side, it was the other bearing that became unseated and needs to be pushed back in.

[Bonz]

Thanks guys...

When you say "sometimes it's a bit loose", that is my situation to a T. It was when I started removing the bearing and it is now that it's back together.

I'll have the drill down for removing the rear wheel! I will check the left side bearing and see if it did get moved just a bit.

The axle seal that I removed from the left side (carefully, so no damage was done to it, and I re-used it) is seated at the same "depth" it was when I pulled it out. The cpllar/spacer with the flange on the bottom end that goes into this seal does rest on the bearing if I remember correct, and it came off before I did any pounding or messing with the spacer occurred.

I will sure give everything a second look, and I will report back to you guys.

Any other ideas, please post.

I was hoping to heck that all of you out there would tell me "it's probably nothing" and save some work in at least removing the wheel.

Thanks!

[Bonz]

Got it...

Hello guru's and such, I got the bearing seating question figured out.

The left side bearing has a removeable center sleeve that the axle runs in. The spacer butts up against this sleeve since it is effectively and literally the center race of the bearing if my terminology is correct.

Therefore, when reassembling everything there is naturally a bit of give until the wheel is tightened when mounting on the bike.

I did tap the left bearing inner sleeve to snug things up before putting the outer sleeve and the seal back on. The left side bearing was snug as a bug in a rug, and seated fully as was the right side bearing I just put in.

In a nutshell, unless your left side bearing is very different than what this bike has, I think this is the method the system uses to make sure things get snugged up when tightening the wheel.

That is why there may or may not be some looseness in the spacer depending on how you put everything together, or how you took it apart.

Mystery solved. Anything I missed?