Hi all I have a question about my 02 GS adv. seems like I have had a little bit of what I thought was bearing whine when leaned over in hard cornering for a long time. Just a little and somewhat inconsistent so I didn't worry too much. However I was coasting my gs down a long incline just out of the tunnel in Zion's nat park recently with the motor off and was pretty horrified by the whine and vibration that could be felt and heard in the corners with the motor off. Honestly didn't think the bike would make it the 250 some odd miles back to salt lake. But I kept the bike really upright and made it home with out incident. Now I'm trying to figure out the cause of the problem. Kinda sounded / felt like it was coming from the front. But there is no play or noticeable noise coming from the front when I play with the front wheel. I also see very little info about replacing front bearings on these bikes on the net. Tons of stuff on the net about the rear crown bearing though. But when I play with the rear wheel, I get no noises or free play and the seal is not leaking. I changed the FD oil at the beginning of the season and the oil looked good. Think I just need to do the rear bearing but was hoping someone here might have some helpful insight? Thanks Mike
Front wheel bearings, need to heat the hub to 212*F, an inside bearing puller for one side and you can tap the other side out. There is a spacer inside. That is the basics of it. Heat it again to install the new bearings (tap squarely in with a socket of the proper size to push on the outer race of the bearing) which you can buy at your local bearing shop in town. It is straight forward and if you don't own a Clymer's book you need one or the factory CD. (which is not too good for this era). Front wheel bearings use to be on the 75,000 mile maintenance list but I think they get changed as needed. If you remove your wheel, stick your finger in the bearing and give it a spin, should be perfectly smooth. I seem to remember there may be inside snap rings involved, been a couple of years since I did a set.
I would remove the front wheel & check the bearings by turning the inner race of both bearings to see how they felt. But if your concerned then I would replace both & the the seal. As to the rear crown bearing drain the FD oil & see what the drain plug has for metal. I have just had my K1200LT FD fail & rebuilt it not that hard if you have some mech experience & the tools to do the job. I also decided to do the front wheel bearings as the bike has 80,000 miles & for comfort of mind .
My tires are annakee 2. Bike has 55k on it. I know either front or rear bearings are bad. Guess I will start with removing the front wheel and inspecting the front a little closer. Feeling pretty sure it has to be the rear though.
I've had a rear final drive bearing go bad a few times and the only symptom aside from a bit more play in there was a rumble heard whilst slowly turning the wheel by hand on the center stand. ( I know I said whilst back there) Try changing the air pressure on each tire separately to see if there is any change in the sound.
A bad bearing iseasy to diagnose. For the rear, put the bike in the centerstand and turn the wheel by hand. Is it "grindy?" If so, bad bearing. If not, good-to-go. For teh front, pull the wheel. Stick your finger into the hole and turn the inner race. It won't turn freely, but it should turn smoothly. If so, good-to-go. If it's rough, it's bad. My bet is tires. That being said, I bought a Tusk bearing puller for about $100. Works great on the wheel bearings.
Big bearing in the final is only good for about 50,000 miles, grindy-no grindy test means nothing. Should be replaced as a wear item every 50k or so, cut it apart when it's been replaced to prove to yourself that you did the right thing. No noises, no grindy rumble feeling, pure smooth running: It's called preventive maintenance, 50,000 miles is enough...replace your front wheel bearings and rebuild the FD. You're not a KLR owner.
+1 my metzler tourance front does the same when worn down, after burning off 8 it's almost a built in wear indicator
I have a cryogenic heat treated spare http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryogenic_hardening that I will install some day. Given the life of a properly shimmed original it is probably overkill and unfortunately there is no reasonable way to determine if the treatment actually extends the bearing life.
I've got a 2000 R1100R, 80k when I did mine earlier in the year. The tech at the dealership said that my bearings were going in the front when he replaced the front tire. I felt them, they didn't feel bad to me. I figured the dealer was fishing for work. Within about 100-200 miles I did start to notice a howl above 30mph that changed by pitching the bike one way or another on a straighaway. It went away when I replaced the front bearings. When I pulled the wheel off the second time I checked the bearings they still seemed good to me. I guess I don't know what's wrong unless they're really bad. There is a set of snap rings, also the cheap-o snap ring plyers from HF, will bend, you need a real set not the 5" long ones. There's also a seal on one side, I replaced mine, the old one looked kind of crummy. Don't loose your spacer in the middle. I used a blind hole bearing puller to pound out the bearing from the opposite side. Save the old bearings to use to press in the new ones. My new bearings had a smaller diameter outer ring and the socket I had looked like it would have been hitting the seal. New bearing in the freezer, heat gun on the hub race. Don't forget the spacer. Don't forget to align the speedo drive correctly either.
I will let u guys know how it turns out. I know the whine and vibration when cornering is not the tires in my case. My anakee's are fairly fresh. Guessing by the responses that there is not a universal sign that the bearings are going. That was mostly what I was fishing for.
Rode the bike to gas station down the street yesterday and think I have it figured out. The rear grumbles and vibrates when you lean the bike. More so to the left than to the right but definitely a problem. Also noticed I still get a little whine out of the front bearings when I flip the bike back and forth a bit. Bike has 55k I'm replacing both front and rear. So where is the best place to order the bearings from?
