Hi all, has anyone had an issue with front wheel bearings failing quickly? One set was installed by a Honda Dealer and they lasted about 450 miles. the second set installed by another Honda Dealer lasted about 650 miles. The set in there now I installed (now that is is home with me) and so far so good (250 miles). I followed the Honda workshop manual EXACTLY to do the install but it seems to be a pretty standard proceedure. Any thoughts? I am going to give it a run this weekend so I suppose time will tell.
Thanks for any input, Fred

 

has your wheel been balanced? sounds like it is flogging the bearings out

 

the second dealer put on a new tire and balanced it. But, the first dealer installed the front wheel backwards (the tire had been put on the right way around).
There is no vibration or shake from the bike. Might it be out of balance and it could not be felt?

Fred

 

Does the bike sit a lot? Mine was bad at 11,000 but I attribute that to it not being ridden much. 1996 with only 11,000 on it when I bought it. I've had it for about three months and I've put almost 5,000 miles on it with no problem.

 

You can't drive the bearings in on the inner race. Struck with much force at all, it flats the ***** and they will fail quickly. I've seen "mechanics" do this and it's fundamentally wrong. You have to use a driver that engages only the outer race.

 

NF, WoW, that sucks !!!!!!!! should have made( given oppertunity) 1# dealer a chance to remedy. Or 2#... same chance. Just did mine last mo., 1500 mi., so far A-OK. As long as they seat (bearings) and didn't have the inner race used to seat them, they should have been OK. If a tire is "out" it would shurly be noticable, if it were bad enough to eat bearings... Axel bent??? fork tubes??? maybe reset the forks in the crowns to realign forks. Does the fork action seam dif.???? I packed the seal to bearing area too, to exclude contamination. Also, mine were shot because of preasure washing... NEVER point that wand at any bearing /seal location. Thats a wierd one !!!!!!! Ugly too, at 65$ for Honda bearings. Good luck !!!!!!
Clean and free, Ripp'n

 

Thanks for the replys! I was not able to "watch" the mechanic install the bearngs so I don't know how they did it. The bearings were replaced at the end of July and failed Sept. 14th. They were replaced on the 14th and were bad by the 16th and 650 miles later. So not much idle time.
When I installed them I used a bearing driver that only touched the outer race. I put the axle in my lathe and there was no runout. When installing the axle thru the forks and bearings you could push it thru with one finger, no misalignment of the forks, no wiggleing required, just a nice firm slide in.
I think I was subjected to "popular mechanics" at two dealerships!

Thanks again, Fred

 

I replaced all wheel bearings over last few months, front + back. Took old bearing to bearing shop (Metropolitian Bearings, in Oz) for replacement ones, cost between $13-18 depending on the size for each one, sounds a lot cheaper than the Honda ones...