Doing some work on scoot today, had to pull wheels for some new tires and drop a fork to replace an upper slider cover. When I pulled the rear wheel I took a good look at the IDS bearing after some here posted some failures.

Bearing looked fine after about 1500 miles. Do got a question though. I know the inner race is two piece, how much lateral play should they have? I can shift laterally about a 1/16". Bearing also more free, not sloppy,than wheel bearings which have no lateral movement and are more rigid/stiffer to turn.

Never heard any noise, no signs of excessive heat at bearing, spins smooth, just curious if norm or should should be thinking about swapping out bearing while I have wheel pulled.

Ez

 

New bearing-don't hesitate.....install it as per latest directive.

After what I've heard/learned about IDS bearing failure, I consider every tire change an opportunity to replace it.

you really have to keep your ear to the ground with HD....They are always the last to admit to a design or manufacturing flaw...so be proactive with your maintenance likeyou learned to be proactive with your riding.

 

Bring me up to speed/link.

What's the latest directive?

 

Not just lastest directive-also latest bearing in case they upgraded.

You need to get to know your service guys and in a fashion that they will offer up the wads of paper they get almost daily....buried in that paper is mods and changes to parts and methods that they in service sometimes don't bother to read.....HD issues that stuff to them in a quiet and routine way......and in that way no one gets alarmed and HD can say "we told you so".

My personal experience revealed that even my dealer's service manager and mechs had never heard of IDS till I requested they install it predelivery on my '07 RKC....they had recieved the paper addressing it including the instructions and special tools required....They never bothered to buy the special tools of train their mechs by the time I requested mine.....I had to insist it was a real deal cause they never heard of it......I got lucky and the mech who installed mine knew enuff about the basices not to damage my bearing.

What directive?.....I can't cite you a # and revision but i do know it exists and I also know most dealers ignored it cause it was mixed in the stack with so many other directives and revisions....and I also know that not every HD dealer invests in special tools and training to keep up with the flood of changes that hit them almost daily.

 

Most major cities have either a Motion Industries, Kaman Industrial Technologies or Applied Industrial. These are all three major bearing distributors in the industry. I would personally take your old bearing there and get thier opinion. I wouldn't hesitate in a minute to replace it with as high of a quality "sealed" bearing as I could get my hands on. SKF is global leader in bearing manufacturing and distribute through all three of these companies.You might spend a bit more, but bearings are pretty cheap to begin with and whatever the cost is would certainly be less than a catastrophic failure. Just my .02