Tag Archives: grease

BMW R90/6 Rear wheel bearing install

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Back to Beemers…
I’m working on a project bike for a friend and had the items powder coated satin black. I’m very excited to see how this bike will turn out.
And yes, I have a very messy garage/workbench at the moment.
I removed the wheel bearings and the races with lots of heat, and the help of a press.
Then went to the powder coat shop and gave them the masking instructions.

Here are some photos of the install.
Not pictured is the process of checking and testing the bearings in the race to make sure they spin smoothly.
If not, clean them, re-test, and clean them again, etc…
Then grease ’em good!
Also not pictured is the process of cleaning the inside of the hub REALLY well. Especially since they were sand blasted.
And.. then there is the process of pre-loading the bearings, freezing them for a day, heating the hub and then ‘plop’, you are done.

Bearings from when I pulled them from the hub.
WheelBearing1

Clean Hub:
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Preloaded bearing stack. I have a piece of steel pipe that I put on the other side of the stack with the axle to help with the preload.
WheelBearing3

A nice propping set up for when it is all heated. These are damaged cork Yoga blocks that a yoga company couldn’t sell. I happily found a home for them in my garage and they come in handy!
WheelBearing4

Frozen bearing stack and axle dropped into that toasty hot hub.
WheelBearing5

Ed Korn Cycle Works Swingarm seal removal tool

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Removing these seals is a frustrating process.  Prying them out usually doesn’t get you anywhere.

I bought Ed Korn’s tool a while back and it can be used for pulling both the races, and the seals.

Here is how you use it to pull the seals.

Here is the tool assembled

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I first cut out some of the seal’s rubber with a razor blade.
It was easier to get the tool installed that way.

 

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Then you tighten the threaded rod with the allen fitting at the end of it.  By doing so, it expands the nut against the screws and presses them outward so they ‘catch’ under the metal part of the seal.

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Then you install the collar, plate and washer and nut.

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Once you begin tightening that nut, it will pull the seal out into the collar.
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You can then loosen the nut, and break the old seal free with a few taps with a hammer.


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