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76 R75/6 Wheel hubs

cseltz

Member
Is there a primer on this site regarding the general maintenance of the wheel hubs / bearings for our bikes? Mine sat still for a number of years and I would like to give the bearings, etc. a "once over" cleaning and re-greasing.

Thanks
 
I think one of the best write-ups on bearings is here: http://w6rec.com/duane/bmw/index.htm

+1 on the above link - helped tremendously - really important to have a good heat gun (I have the Milwaukee red gun with 2 settings) and important to pay close attention to what comes out first - the image for my /5 on the above link showed the rear wheel but not the front wheel. Front wheel was a much different orientation - got the pieces mixed up and thanks to the web was able to find an image of how the pieces go back together - the Haynes & Clymer didn't have any good images (that we could see) of the front wheel orientation.
 
What I am wondering is if I can simply clean and re-grease the bearings without removing them. I have no reason to think they are bad but since I have the wheels off and am putting new tires on and the bike is new to me... Thanks
 
I can't imagine how you would clean them effectively without removing them... Cycleworks sells an attachment for a grease gun that would allow you to grease the bearings in place (and I guess, by extension, clean out the old grease by forcing new grease into them):
www.cycleworks.net
or
www.cycleworks.net/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=29_33_53&products_id=48

Taking the bearings out of the front wheel is easy and by far the better option in my opinion. On the rear, the left (outer) bearing is straightforward as well. The rear right (inner) bearing is a little more difficult, and I have used the Cycleworks tool to grease it (pushing grease through until the grease coming out was "clean"**...), but I have my shop pull and service that one every so often (I've read that you should clean and grease them every other tire change as a rule of thumb, but check the manual for the BMW recommended interval).

** no brown chunks, the universal standard of clean :laugh
 
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What I am wondering is if I can simply clean and re-grease the bearings without removing them. I have no reason to think they are bad but since I have the wheels off and am putting new tires on and the bike is new to me... Thanks

I had the same thoughts but in the end felt removing the bearings would be a more thorough way to go - I was a little intimidated about heating up the hub but after reading the link above about preloading the bearings and having a friend help, who has more experience with wheel bearings than me, it worked out great.

As it stood, the rear wheel just had old brown grease, probably wasn't brown in '73 but who knows. The bearings were dirty.

The front wheel had more contamination and I wound up replacing the bearings.

Now I've got a good baseline for where the bike is on maintenance for the wheel bearings.
 
I have removed the rear wheel stack and everything looks fine there. I will clean, grease and reinstall checking preload and shimming as needed. There is some pitting on one of the front bearings so I am inclined to replace those. Is the removal procedure the same for the front and rear wheels (removing the stack all at once) or is there a method for removing the bearings one at a time to keep from forcing one bearing through 2 spaces. Clymers says to heat the hub and "tap" the bearing race out but I am concerned about being able to apply even pressure. Advice from those who have already done this would be greatly appreciated.
 
+1 on the above link - helped tremendously - really important to have a good heat gun (I have the Milwaukee red gun with 2 settings) and important to pay close attention to what comes out first - the image for my /5 on the above link showed the rear wheel but not the front wheel. Front wheel was a much different orientation - got the pieces mixed up and thanks to the web was able to find an image of how the pieces go back together - the Haynes & Clymer didn't have any good images (that we could see) of the front wheel orientation.

Did you do anything differently taking the stack out of the front wheel? The rear wheel stack came out pretty much as described in the articles by both Duane and Snowbum. Front wheel stack won't budge.
 
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