Check your front wheel bearings for grease marks?

EricD10563 · #1 08-25-2009, 12:05 AM

I thought I had heard some noise coming out of my front end or engine and of course when I pulled over I heard nothing and just rolling at slow speed I heard nothing.

Today though I could hear clearly that something was wrong and knew it was front end noise. I pulled over twice on the way home going slowly trying to figure it out. Then I saw the rubber was starting to pull off the bearing and I pulled it and could plainly see what was going on.

It ended there and my local dealer picked me and the bike up within a half hour. BTW the bike rolled fine even the dealership guys couldn't believe that it rolled fine. It was making some nasty noise though on my final stop.

Was scheduled to be brought in Wed for both tires to be changed, bike has almost 11k miles. Here are the pictures I took from the side of the road.

BTW I also noticed that when the bike got wet I thought that I saw grease or dirt that lookied like it was getting onto the rotor, I assume thats exactly what it was now the bearing was not sealed and the grease was escaping out evently causing failure.

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OG1 · #2 08-25-2009, 12:08 AM

yea its real fun when the rear wheel one pukes out like that at 80mph, dont ask me how i know... Glad you caught it in time.

emwolb · #3 08-25-2009, 05:59 AM

good for you that it didn't fail while at hi speed. glad you got her all fixed up. it sure makes sense to do visual inspections often. wow, that bearing looks mighty spooky.

KopperTop · #4 08-25-2009, 06:10 AM

Thanks for posting the pics. One more thing to check. Just a bad bearing or was it damaged during some previous work perhaps?

EricD10563 · #5 08-25-2009, 06:15 AM

I had noticed a few times after I washed my bike or heavy rain that it looked like grease was spinning out of the bearing and I should have taken notice then instead of just cleaning it, sort of like those old paint games that spun on a platter and you put a drop of paint and it would make a pattern. Hind sight is 20-20 I'm pretty sure that all the grease was coming out of the bearing. It could have been much worse and I can't complain dealer picked me up right away with a trailer.

EricD10563 · #6 08-25-2009, 06:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KopperTop

Thanks for posting the pics. One more thing to check. Just a bad bearing or was it damaged during some previous work perhaps?

Bike is bone stock and an 09, wheels have never been off, was there when it was un-crated, has almost 11k miles.

Faulty bearing does not seem to be an issue since I don't see much talk about it. Just want people to check because it could have been an issue.

todd-67 · #7 08-25-2009, 06:23 AM

Damn that looks like it could have been nasty. Glad it worked out for you in the end.

jpooch00 · #8 08-25-2009, 06:24 AM

Scary! Is this something that's happening on lots of bikes, or is it just an isolated incident?

Wonder why the MOCO went to ball bearings instead of the ultra-rugged tapered rollers that worked fine for so many years? I didn't know they had done that.

mainshaft · #9 08-25-2009, 06:39 AM

Great catch, I changed mine out at 30K front and rear, probably didn't have to but I did.

EricD10563 · #10 08-25-2009, 06:54 AM

Don't want to hijack my own thread but I'm happy I was running stock pipes and the windshield (less wind noise), I don't think I would have heard it till much later or not at all.