they really are a load of balls! so you guys may have remembered last week i changed one of my wheel bearings. i looked around for the cheapest and bought it from wemoto. ive used wemoto a few times before and had no problems with the bits, although its always been OEM parts ive bought. Thinking bearings are pretty basic contraptions, there cant be much difference between the cheap and expensive ones as they all do the same thing. i opted for the cheapest one which was an "all balls racing" branded aftermarket one .... big mistake! after 60 miles, i started to hear a dodgy noise coming from the back end. limped it home slowly and took the rear wheel off and this is what was left of the bearing.... iits safe to say i wont be buying a £3.50 wheel bearing ever again lol.
To be fair, you did knock it out after your pops put it in with out the spacer. Bet you punched against the inner race, denting it against the balls, denting them against the outer. When you put the new one in, use the old one as a drift and only tap on the outer race so the balls see no load. Don't see a shroud left on that bearing. Make sure you get sealed ones. Personally, I would never change one bearing on a spindle. I would change all three. If one has gone, the other two will have seen extra load in a slightly abnormal plain. They'll be passed there best. When they go, they'll take the new one with it, so it becomes a false economy.
Or you could bill Pops for a complete new set of top line bearings and your labour for 2 hrs at £60/hr.
All balls bearings ? ,!!!! My general rule of the thumb is not to purchase or deal with anything that has a dodgy or piss take type name ! Eg ....a locksmith called Surelock homes A double glazing company ....pane in the glass A baker called ..bread Pitt I'm sure they are all decent businesses , but I just stay away .....we had a painter on one our jobs few months back and he gave me his card ....he was called ...Rudi good lad ! Painting and decorating ! ...WTF
I actually used a bit of a strange idea to get it out to avoid that exact issue... I got a small socket wrench with a smaller diameter than the axle and wrapped it in a rag. Slid that through the bearing I wanted out and gave a few taps so the rag wedged it in. Flipped the wheel over, and tapped it out gently from the other side using my old axle to get down to the end of the wrench handle. The rag will have applied even pressure to the bearing from the inside, rather than putting force on the lip. To put them back in, I used a socket which was the same diameter as the outer race and tapped on that rather than hitting the bearing itself. I also checked the movement both before putting it in and once seated and all was fine and the wheel wasn't binding when torqued to spec. it was a sealed bearing when it went in . I had to fish one of the bastards out front by the other bearing and the other was chilling out on the spacer in the back of the sprocket carrier. What you say about changing the whole set does make sense though. I ordered and fit a replacement yesterday as a stop gap so its rideable for motorcycle live and I'll be doing the full set at the start of next month. Should I stick to genuine yammy bearings or does anybody have any recommendations?
A mate who has a bike shop never buys OEM parts. He just gives the size to a specialist bearing supplier. They are a fraction of the price and exactly the same apart from the name on the packet. I will try and find out their details.
Measure the bearing. Go online. Find out what code that equates to ie 6204 etc. Buy decent brand ie skf, fag etc. Like I said a bit back I went this way and got all three bearings and the two dust seals for about a tenner. Or if you pop to a bearing stockist they will usually have everything. Ive used abex power in wigan and they are cheap and offer great service. As for the bearings you bought ive used them for my head races and they were spot on.
All Balls are meant to be a reputable aftermarket USA brand for needle head race bearings and other motorcycle applications - not heard of failures like this before - anyone else used them ? I have a set of front wheel bearings ready to fit this winter ...
As per my post, ive used them with no issues. Tbh if the bearing went in ok and felt fine im massively surprised its destroyed after only a couple of hours of use.
As Kev said use the eld shell to drift the new in and use a blind puller to pull it form the other side or a length of threaded bar and washers/plates to press it in. I had problems last year with front wheel bearings, blew through 5 sets in less than 4 months!!!! Issue turned out to be the same bearing manufacturer makes the exact same size bearings for industrial food processing machines (the conveyor bearings) and as such they were only given minimal lubricant. The issue was solved by buying Japanese bearings for twice the price that are still going strong.
I usually go on Wemoto, Find the sizes then go to a site called simplybearings and order the decent bearings off there.
