Hi , I had an intermittent noise from the rear of the bike (2011 - Iron) around 70 -90 kph. I was not sure if it was the wheel or the engine, but did not want to be riding it if it ceased, so I called Harley Assist and they took it to Frasers. Apparently the whel bearing needs replacing.
I googled this and people in the USA report this to be common and they change the wheel beariings when they change the tyres.
Anyone else had wheel bearing trouble around 30,000 km, is this common ?
You are doing well, I had the rear wheel bearing done on my 2010 Fatboy Lo at 12,000ks they did fix it under warranty but what a joke those bearings should be able to run much longer distances, not like a Harley has heaps of power to destroy a rear wheel bearing.
They know how to charge you to purchase a Harley and then use cheap arse bearings
If your bearing setup is the same as a late model big twin. One bearing has to be inserted all the way in first, this locates the wheel in the right place. EDIT IN, the first bearing goes all the way in, there is one or two grooves in the machined surface of the wheel which defines which one to do first. On my bike it is the brake (right side) on the rear wheel and left side on the front. The spacer between the bearings is slightly too long and it's meant to be that way. Use the tool meant for the job to press in the other bearing, there will be a couple of mm of space between the bearing and the shoulder on the wheel. Trying to tap the second bearing all the way in side loads the first bearing and it will fail because the overlength spacer is pushing on it, as will over shortening the spacer. ''(EDIT IN) there is a space between the bearing and the wheel , improper pressing in of the bearings wil side load them. The pressing in needs to be done with pressure on the inner and outer race at the same time, bearings to be tensioned in with a threaded rod with a big washer loading both races on both bearings. Some people try and make the spacer the exact right length but it will compress under the axle bolt tension and be a bit too short and side load the bearings. Different wheels have different spacers, so trying to put your old bearings and spacer in a new set of wheels might not work out very well. The bearings have to be pressed in up to the axle bolt tension so that the inner and outer races are both square to each other in the bore when the axle is torqued up to spec. Just tapping them in with a bit of pipe whatever is handy is likely to cause premature bearing failure. Hope that all makes sense.". Some one is bound to have made a youtube video of what to do with lots of explanations along the way. I use non genuine bearings too. Hartland or some one else will have a tool for the job, try Amazon or ebay and pay half or a third or a quarter of the price for the tool. The twin cam, cam bearing removal tool works as well if you know what your doing, especially for removing the old bearings. The bearing are firm in the hub for a reason, keeps them in the right place, bike rear wheels don't have the side loads a car wheel has. Most of the problems are from poor installation/poor understanding of how it should be done.
Picture below of groove or grooves on machined surface of wheel, first bearing goes all the way in on this side from what is written in the Harley manual for my bike.
Diagram.
1. step one, first bearing all the way in on side with groove.
2. second bearing pushed/tapped in until spacer hits first bearing.
3. second bearing not far enough in, spacer too short or spacer compressed.
4. Second bearing pulled in square with a threaded rod, all bearings in the right place with spacer under tension, the same as it would be when fitted to the bike. My mike has the axle nut tension as 100 ft/lb or 140 N/m. 2008 Softail.
Put a bit more in there and edited out some mistakes (previous post) to try and make it easier to understand, hope its some help to someone. Went to bed thinking the modern wheels are not as suited for sidecar use. Guess they do it this way now so as to make it quicker, cheaper and easier to mass produce without needing to adjust bearings during assembly. The bearings are NOT SIDE LOADED during insallation or most importantly DURING USE OR THEY WILL FAIL due to the poor installation. The bearing quality is up to the installer. If you understand what your doing and why and do it a few times, its quick with the right tools. Slow to do and likely to fail prematuraly if done with the wrong tools or poor understanding. Harley must have used the same line of thinking with the pressed twin cam cranks/flywheels.
The first bearing is pressed all the way in, this is determined by the groove or grooves in the machined surface on the wheel. The manual for my bike had the primary side first, this is the primary side of the wheel determined by the groove/grooves, not the primary drive side of the bike.
+1 about using a pressure washer to clean around bearings, Fk's them up.
