Tag Archives: wheel

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:
WheelBearing2

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

Wheels Laced

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The owner of the bike had a good suggestion. At first i wasn’t too into the idea but now that I am seeing everything come together, I really like it.
He suggested that we powder coat the hubs in white:

We are going with some wide shoulder Akront/Morad rims. I can’t wait to see these on the bike.

I took them to Johnson and Wood in North Hollywood to get laced. They bought the spokes for me and laced them for a very affordable price and a reasonable turn around. I’m surprised when I receive responsive and courteous customer service these days and the wheel guy, Al, was great to talk to. He and I traded a few faxes and phone calls talking about the proper offset. He was proud to give the wheels back to me and offered to re-adjust the offset if i felt that anything seemed incorrect.

Test fit and I’m dying to get some rubber on these dubs.

Rub a dub dub. New Battlax BT45 Bridgestones ready for the roads!