DARKSIDE and wheel bearings.

[buffalobill]

Has anyone else had any problems with wiping wheel bearings with a Darkside tire?  >:(I have only 3000 miles on my Goodyear triple tread and my rear wheel bearings are toast. Is there a replacement bearing better than the OEM? :)I would appreciate any and all input. I do not ride overly aggressive , but I do ride a wee bit faster than traffic .When the tire was installed she was done by a Honda tech and all the torque settings were met.

Thanks,
Buffalobill

[Daniel Meyer]

130,000 miles. 115,000 of those darkside. Original bearings. Tires are irrelevent to the bearings.

Cross #s for bearings at JeffK's page:
http://www.jkozloski.com/generic_parts.htm

You can get them at NAPA.

Make sure you assemble the rear end in the right order at each 10,000 mile check or tire change, and dab a little bearing grease on the seals of your wheel bearings. Helps keep dust and water from wearing the seals, and working their way into the bearing.

[valkmc]

65,000 on my original bearings, 22,000 of it on a Goodyear TT.  No problems, I luv the Goodyear it is a great tire.

[B]

What year is your Valk?  I had read some blogs where some of the late 90's models had pre-mature failure on bearings.  I replaced my front bearings (at ~15K) on the 99 I/S I bought a couple years ago; they weren't wiped, but had enough slop to cause my speedo sensor issues on reads.

[Ricky-D]

What is a "wiped bearing", and how does it apply to a sealed wheel bearing?

[buffalobill]

 My Valkyrie is a 99 Interstate. It was making a growling sound from the rear when braking. I originally thought it was my rear caliper not releasing properly. Well, upon dropping the wheel, The bearing on the left side was shot. The caliper was fine. I am going to put new bearings in the wheel and try this again. I have another wheel with an Avon Venom til I get the bearings and seals. Thanks everyone for your help. I won't be at Inzane this year as I am involved with our Patriot Guard "Support our troops rally" for injured warriors. I wish everyone well, Ride safe and enjoy the wind.

Buffalobill

[valkmc]

My valk is a 98 std with 65000 and still has all the original bearings. I will go with the NAPA bearings when I replace.

[nortman]

I run a 5204 bearing on both sides of the rear wheel.  The bearing pocket is deep enough on the left side. Just no lip seal, and the spacer has to be turned down about a quarter inch or so to fit.  Works for me, I did it just because I'm Crazy to run a CT anyway.  Or that's what my friends tell me 

[SANDMAN5]

Could have been just a bad bearing..or improper install. My 98 had 34,000
when I bought it and needed bearings. It had never seen a car-tar till I
put one on it. 14,000 miles later and no bearing (or other) issues.

[Larry]

"I run a 5204 bearing on both sides of the rear wheel.  The bearing pocket is deep enough on the left side. Just no lip seal, and the spacer has to be turned down about a quarter inch or so to fit.  Works for me, I did it just because I'm Crazy  to run a CT anyway.  Or that's what my friends tell me "

Do you happen to have a pick of the left side?

[nortman]

Do you happen to have a pick of the left side?

I'll Take one when I get home from work this morning. 

The bike had the rear axel overthightened when I got it at 13,000 miles. The bike had new tires on it, so thats probably when it was overdone.  I found the overtightened axel when I did my first spline check at 20,000, the bearing didn't feel rough yet, but apparintly the damage was done.  I put a new Cobra on at the beginning of last summer at 30,000, and I thought that the bearing was feeling a little rough, but I was eager to ride and left it in  .  It almost made it through my entire season.  On the way home from work on morning in the fall the bearing started making noise and the rear felt a little loose.  I parked the bike for the winter at that point anyway.  This spring I dropped the wheel, and when I pulled the axel, the bearing came out in pieces. That was at 47,800, the Cobra only had a couple of thousand miles left on it, so I went over to the Darkside.  I remembered someone else posting that they used a double race when they replaced it.  I thought what the heck, since the bearing is sealed anyway, the lip seal just seems like overkill, I'll give it a try also. I've built a trailer, and have been pulling that this summer also.  I've got 9,000 miles on the Darkside/bearing combo so far and everything seems to be working out fine. 

[Ricky-D]

I guess you could over-tighten the axle nut but regardless it will not have any affect on the bearings. Old style automotive tapered bearings and similar type bearing are very sensitive to over-tightening but that is not a problem with wheels on you Honda.

[nortman]

You really can't see a lot in the photo.  There is a washer on the front of the spacer.  I turned the spacer down shorter and was going to face the washer on the full face of the bearing, but then decided against that idea.  As you can see the edge of the bearing doesn't quite come to the edge of the bearing pocket.  The bearing pocket edge itself is banged up some from getting the OD bearing race out when the orginal bearing failed and came  out in pieces.  And for Ricky D,  As for overtightening the axle nut.  You may be right, but I will politely disagree with you.  Something makes these bearing fail prematurely, and in my case, I had to use a breaker bar to loosen the nut.  So unless someone is willing to greatly overtighten THEIR wheel and run it for a few thousand miles to prove me wrong. I will continue to stand by the statement that overtightening the axle nut will contribute to bearing failure.

[Madmike]

"""""You may be right, but I will politely disagree with you.  Something makes these bearing fail prematurely, and in my case, I had to use a breaker bar to loosen the nut.  So unless someone is willing to greatly overtighten THEIR wheel and run it for a few thousand miles to prove me wrong. I will continue to stand by the statement that overtightening the axle nut will contribute to bearing failure.""""


When you install this style bearing in the housing or hub the installation procedures that are used can have a very real impact on the running life of the bearings.  Impact to the outer race of any bearing during installation can damage the race and shorten its life. 

The 5204 bearing is a double row angular contact bearing - the 2 rows are designed to withstand radial and axial load. 

http://www.thebigbearingstore.com/servlet/the-566/5204-dsh-2RS-5204-dsh-ZZ-Radial-Ball/Detail

The 6204 bearing is a single row bearing  - it is primarily designed to withstand high radial load. 

http://www.thebigbearingstore.com/servlet/the-445/6204-dsh-2RS-3-fdsh-4-Radial-Ball/Detail

Some of the things to be aware of during install of any bearing are:

-Never drive a bearing in a manner that will put impact through the rolling surfaces.  If you are installing a bearing into a housing apply force only to the outer race only - not to the inner race and through the roller.  This applies even if you are pulling a bearing into place - don't load up the inner race.  Sockets adapt well as bearing installers, match the size up well you have the bearing in your hand, find one that fits well to the outer race of the bearing.  If you are applying a bearing onto a shaft the opposite applies, only apply force to the inner race to get it onto the shaft.  The bearing can be heated to make the inner race "grow" so that it slide easily onto the shaft.  Another method  of making installers is to use the bearing that came out of the hole by taking the inner race and rolling elements out and then grinding the outer diameter of the outer race so that it will clear the bore in the hub.  Redi-rod along with appropriate nuts and washers can be used to make up an installer to pull the bearing into place rather than driving on the bearing to install it.

-Ensure that the surfaces the bearing seats against are flat and smooth, if there are nicks or burrs that were created when you removed the bearing ensure that these are filed off and the surfaces are restored to good condition so that the original install dimensions can be restored.

On the Valkyrie rear axle there is a spacer that sets the dimension between the inner races of the two bearings.  The length of this spacer corresponds to the distance between the two machined bearing seats in the wheel hub.  If either the bearing seats or the length of the spacer changes because of damage to their machined surfaces then there will be side loading on the races of the wheel bearings.  The 6204 bearing is not meant to withstand high axial load and so if it is subjected to this it will fail in time.

As to the concern of overtightening the axle nut and damaging the wheel bearing IMHO I would say that you are both correct in what you are saying.  One in that if it was tightened with hand tools and the nut or axle are not stripped the overtorque in itself shouldn't reasonably cause failure as the axle should stretch with the torque and the even compression on the inner race should not distort the inner race of the bearing to any extent.  However if the torque applied amplified another condition such as a bad bearing seat or a burr on the spacer then the overtorque may have contributed to the early failure. Again.... my opinion.





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