How long do wheel bearings usually last on a 2002 Road King?

If you had them go out, did they give any indication?

I've got 77,000 on mine, but I've only put the last 4,000 miles on it, so I'm not sure of any of the previous history. I did put new tires on it this spring (4000 miles ago), and my Indy said they were fine then.

Lately, I've noticed that when driving straight and neutral, bars feel smooth, but if I just lean a little, putting a little side load in things, I feel a minor, "fast" vibration in the bars.

I jacked it up, and wheels feel tight, no play that I can feel.

 

I'm not sure about the 2002 but the newer front wheel bearings are crap. I've had one set fail and another come close. Luckily they are cheap and not much more to replace when changing new front tires so I have them changed with each new tire.

I'm not sure how he felt it but I had my bike in for an unrelated service and when the service writer started pushing the bike into the shop, he turned and looked at me and said your front wheel bearings are out. Before I could say something, another service writer called him out as BS. He said, he could feel the bearing catching. It was a very smooth floor. I told him to have the tech check them and sure enough, they were bad.

Having said all that, my thought on your issue though is to check the front tires for cupping or unsual wear. Most of my miles are on the highway going straight and the tires will wear funny on the edges. I can hear a growl and feel the tires in the bars in turns and especially in big sweeping curves. Visually check the tires for anything that might cut your hand first then lightly rub your hand both ways on the tire. should be smooth both ways. If not, that's what your feeling when you lean into turns.

Good luck.

 

What tires did you put on it? I have a Dunlop d407 and d408 on mine and 4000 miles is usually about the approximate mileage mine start cupping. That's what I noticed anyway, it starts off with a high frequency vibration then as time goes on they start howling but I only noticed it while leaning into a curve.

 

Wheel bearing life if variable due to a lot of factors. Installation methods can really shorten the life of wheel bearings. Banging them into place, over-pulling them and putting too much pressure on the inner race, little to no lube in the bearing (something to always check prior to install), pressure washing your bike and forcing high-pressure streams at the bearings...the water gets in and commences the process of lube displacement and corrosion, etc.

Bearing replacement is easy with the correct tools. I replace mine at every tire change....even the ABS bearing which is available only from HD. I buy the non-abs bearings elsewhere for around $12 each.

 

I would say you should change them! The bike is almost 17 years old and you have no idea of the bikes history prior to you buying the bike. I have a buddy with an 02 RK, he brought it to me to work on prior to our annual trip. Besides it needing brakes, tires (and tubes), I looked at the bearings the seals looked a little dry but spun ok, when I removed the front wheel the inner spacer was moving in between the bearings, bore was good. Changed them all out, just saying like OC Joe mentioned, you don't know the history of maintenance.
I have a 12 CVO and started getting the hum when leaning, have about 7-8000k+ on the tires and just noticed them starting to scallop, they too are the D407/408 OEM tires. Just got home last night and haven't jacked it up yet to check the bearings, still cleaning the bugs off.

 

If your bearings are getting old and worn I would expect you to be able to feel them while turning the wheel over by hand. They will not be tight, not run smoothly, may even make a noise. Just check them at each service, or when changing tyre, brake pads, etc.

 

The early 1" bearings can last 100k+. If and when they go bad replace them with the original HD 9247 bearing.

 

I always listen to mine with a stethoscope when I have the front wheel off the ground. Pretty simple check.

 

I recently posted this on another thread. The bike is a 2000 low mileage 883, but still... Harley bearings. And just because earlier bearings might have been better, don't expect to get them from a dealer now, you'll get whatever is their current supplier. There are so many bearing failures reported (admittedly, a small fraction of total Harleys) it seems like taking a chance to just let someone throw in a new one. You can get replacement sealed bearings for old tapered roller bearing bikes; I wish you could do it the other way around, I really liked those, clean and grease at every tire change, and I'm convinced they were much stronger.

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Since my last post, pulled a sportster rear wheel bearing pair, both INA with plastic ball cages, and very little green grease, at about 11,000 miles. The plastic in these was still intact, unlike the eff.A.G. Canadian made front bearings with granules coming off their plastic cages - that surprised me, considered them a quality brand. I still replaced the INA bearings in spite of feeling ok, just don't want to rely on plastic in wheel bearings. You can see in the photos that they barely had enough grease to wet the *****, and I wonder how that would have played out if I tried to get 50,000 miles out of them that way.

The replacement bearings (trying AllBalls, which have sturdy metal ball cages) had an adequate quantity of grease, but the ***** were dry - the factory just smears grease on the side and lets them mix when they spin, and this is common with many manufacturers. If you don't do this by hand (and I push grease down around the ***** with a small screwdriver first) to lub those *****, they'll turn briefly dry metal to metal with the bike load on them before they get a greased film. Sure, probably just microscopic wear, but why not avoid even that.

The back side of that plastic ball cage doesn't matter much, though there's not enough here to do much if it did -


but this side is where grease matters, and I don't see much of it. It's a Harley 9267 bearing (3/4" i.d.) made by INA. I did not remove any grease, this is what it looked like untouched other than taking the seals off.


It's not that I want to take business away from a Harley dealer, but I doubt you'll find one that will take this kind of attention with your wheels, even if asked. And unless they show you the bearing with a seal off, you'll never know for sure, either. An independent might do this for you. If you replace your own bearings, you have all the skill needed already to check them yourself.

 

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Well,i look at this way,with 77k miles already on the wheel bearings and their relatively low cost why even question replacing both front & rear wheel bearings next time you replace the tires?

Scott