Rear Wheel Bearing-outer, need advice

[6jugzz]

Here is the background:

Notice some pulsation in rear brake (when applied) thru the foot pedal. Pulled over and ck. for heat- rotor real hot without much brake use. Hub @ the spindle, both sides, just warm to the touch. Same as front, both ck @ same time.

Today I pulled saddlebag to ck. for stiff disc break caliper, was easy to move in/out with (new) pads removed. Pads looked good.

Put a dial indicator with mag base attached to s.b. rail to ck. for runout @ disc rotor, result was dead true within +/- .002 .

Issue:  When I try to move wheel side to side, I see about .03+ movement on the dial. Also see some slight movement @ the seal to spindle. When I roll thru. I feel no roughness or here any noise. IS THIS A BAD BEARING, or the beginnings of one??? I am about 2k out from tire replacement. Has anyone else had a similar issue?   

[MP]

If it was me, I would pull the wheel and check the bearing.  Hard to be sure until pulled.
MP

[hubcapsc]

I had a problem that manifested itself as a hot rear rotor last year.

When I first got my bike, I drained the brake and clutch fluids and replaced the brake pads. I just
mashed the brake pistons in, even though it was kind of hard. What I should have done was
rebuild the calipers instead of mashing those dirty pistons in to put on the new pads. So -
is it easy to mash your pistons in by hand? The difference between mashing in contaminated
pistons and clean happy pistons is large.

After I got the real problem fixed, I was further confused by my still too-hot rotor. When I rebuilt
the caliper I cleaned and redid everything, new rubber booties, fresh caliper grease on the
pins that the caliper slides on, everything - except I didn't clean off the pin that the pads
slide on. The fat new pads were trying to slide on the dirty part of the pin:



After I cleaned that pin, no more hot rotor. And fantastic brakes, both action and feel.

-Mike

[6jugzz]

I decided to go thru the rear break unit again cause I remembered that you had this issue, did the same things you did except rebuild the pistons. (mine seem to move in/out ok) I just took a little test ride and feels better. I will monitor for the next few miles and see what happens. I am going to order the bearings and a rebuild kit for breaks just in case I need. Thanks for the info.

[Black Pearl's Captain]

If you can move the wheel .030 I'd say have a very worn bearing. It's much easier to remove a bad bearing that's still in one piece rather than a gone bearing in two pieces.

Get that wheel off and check it soon.

Raymond