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Rear wheel bearing trouble even with updated hubs!

11K views 39 replies 14 participants last post by  Cobbzilla 
#1 ·
Trying to figure out if anyone has any insight as to why I cannot keep a set of rear hub bearings for more that 20 miles.

History I went through my first one with about 200 miles on the machine I chalk the first one up to my fault I swapped axles and when I did I did not torque to the required specs as I thought this was overkill so probably 25 miles after this I noticed my back tire wobbling and looked at it and the nut has spun inside the retainer. The bearing was completely gone and this killed my new axle threads to boot.

bought a new bearing put in old axle tightened to 240 lbs put in cotter pin put maybe 35 miles on it before I noticed excessive wheel wobble did not catch it in time ate the hub nut was spun so tight on cotter pin had to drill pin out to get nut out.

3rd time since the hub was gone and MLS had the new kit for a little over the price of a new hub and axle upgrade I figured I would solve the problem and go with the upgrade torqued the axle to 240 everything went together nicely rode last Saturday for about 20 miles. jacked the machine up tonight going to do some maintenance and noticed drivers side already has a huge amount of play in it.

WTF just spent 450 hoping to get rid of this problem and didn't make it a week am I doing something wrong or do I just keep getting bad parts? First 2 smaller bearings I had the greaser and greased them them I did not with the new larger ones as I did not have the tool.

First bearing went with stock tires I have been running 14x8 rims with a little more offset and 30" tires for reference but I know guys running much larger.
 
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#30 ·
Correct me if I’m wrong but as far I see this upgrade did nothing to fix the axle nut spinning off. Only shearing the stub shaft which I have not heard of any failing. I still put my modded retainer plates on the 18. I put around 15 pumps of grease in each of mine as well. I still don’t see why people feel so inclined to torque these to 250 that just seems crazy to me. Don’t care what the specs say. That’s a lot of torque for the threads. I put mine at about 180 with the modded retainer plates.
 
#34 ·
. Can’t open your link izom.
 
#39 ·
Check ebay for bearing greasers. You will need two - the front and rear bearings are different IDs now that you have the upgraded rear axle kit. The sizes are in this thread. (Finding the thread took about 20 seconds using google's site specific search.)

You have to remove the wheel hubs and then pull the axles out of the bearings. The inside of the bearing is split into outer and inner races. You slip the bearing greaser into the bearing. It has o-rings that seal to each of the races. When you pump grease into the bearing greaser, the grease will force the two races apart ever so slightly, allowing the grease to reach the balls.
 
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