Need advice about wheel bearing greaser

http://www.cycleworks.net/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=29_33_53&products_id=48

Hey All
1978 R-80/7 is the patient here.
The wheels turn fine, no play ;just want to put a little fresh grease in there.
I found this bearing greaser online, does anyone have experience with it?

I just want to put some new grease in my bearings without taking them all apart.

Thumbs up or thumbs down on this product
Thanks in advance
Nick

600K miles of

Alas, Cycle Works doesn't seem to show an image of the wheel bearing greaser, but I found an image on Duane Ausherman's website. He has quite a lot of useful info on airhead wheel bearings. Link follows -

http://w6rec.com/bmw-motorcycle-wheel-bearings-1956-through-84-repair-preload-and-spun-hubs/

The best testimonial that I ever heard for this tool came from the late Fred Tausch. His R60/5 had over 600,000 miles on it when he died. He said that he had the original wheel bearings and that he used this tool about every 5,000 miles to renew the grease about the bearings. Image of tool follows.

I like mine and have used it on both of my airheads over the years. I still prefer to remove the bearings to clean, inspect, and grease by hand occasionally, but it's great for the inner bearing on the rear wheel that is difficult to access or for those times when I choose not to disassemble the others. It's easy to use and gets the grease into the bearings well.

I mfg. my own greaser that worked on both wheels. I used a bolt that went all the way through, the drilled it internally and put a grease fitting on the end. Then a 90 Deg. center hole to allow grease to escape into bearing cavity. However, if doing this, one needs to put a small hole in the internal bearing spacer so that the grease can migrate from inside the spacer to the outside of spacer where the bearing rollers are.

When I greased mine, I made sure both bearings were saturated with grease, by watching the seals. Grease would eventually squeeze out there. I just had to make sure the seals weren't also being pushed out from the pressure.

Lots easier to grease than manually.

FWIW- If I am greasing bearings in such a way that the grease is injected to the center of the bearing location, I like to put a little kerosene in first.
I use this tool-



I find that a little bit of kerosene helps to blend the old grease with the new grease. If the "older" grease has formed a bit of a block against the seal, the kerosene helps the "newer" grease appear and therefor keeps from pushing the seal out.

https://www.gemplers.com/product/109643/Grease-Joint-Rejuvenator-Cleaning-Tool

OM

For me, once I was taught how to heat the hub with a propane torch and knock the bearing stack out, that became the preferred method as it allows also for checking (and adjusting) the pre-load.

ebeeby said:

For me, once I was taught how to heat the hub with a propane torch and knock the bearing stack out, that became the preferred method as it allows also for checking (and adjusting) the pre-load.

Click to expand...

Can someone explain how (short of bearing wear signaling replacement) the preload changes once properly set. It seems to me that if a change in preload is measurable there is enough wear to warrant replacing the bearing.

Thanks for the advice!
I ordered one today.

It might take a while to get. I borrowed one last fall, used it, liked it, so bought my own. It took about six weeks to get. Nice product!

PGlaves said:

Can someone explain how (short of bearing wear signaling replacement) the preload changes once properly set. It seems to me that if a change in preload is measurable there is enough wear to warrant replacing the bearing.

Click to expand...

Or you could just wait until the bearing fails in a dramatic fashion and releases all that new grease everywhere. Are you saying new grease will not fix a worn out bearing?? Who would have thunk it??

Friedle

Friedle said:

Or you could just wait until the bearing fails in a dramatic fashion and releases all that new grease everywhere. Are you saying new grease will not fix a worn out bearing?? Who would have thunk it??

Friedle

Click to expand...

You know better than that feeble response. I repeat: If wear of a bearing causing loss of preload is measurable, isn't that a bearing that ought to be replaced? Snarky crap excepted, of course.

Added: Which is why every bike I now own has pre-lubed sealed bearings that go 100K miles or more. Feel free to coddle your antiques but don't pretend that their maintenance is modern maintenance. It is based on 50 year old technology.

PGlaves said:

Can someone explain how (short of bearing wear signaling replacement) the preload changes once properly set. It seems to me that if a change in preload is measurable there is enough wear to warrant replacing the bearing.

Click to expand...

The only thing I can figure out is that he mentions removing the bearings from the hub with heat. My guess is that when the bearings are re-installed, they either are in a slightly different location, OR they are not seating the exact same way they were when removed. That would account for the difference in distance between the bearing that would affect bearing preload. On my bike, the inside rear bearing has to be slid some 4" or 5" over the center hub to remove.

On those older bikes, better to replace bearings than to run the risk of a bearing failure - like I had on my front wheel going 60 MPH. I was lucky. I also NOW recommend that everyone purchasing one of those old Airheads to make SURE bearings are well-lubed. I was told when I bought my bike in 2012 (it was a '78 R100/7 used) that it was well maintained. After that incident, I looked and it appeared that my front wheel bearings hadn't been lubed since the bike was new. Those bearings are cheap to buy and can even be purchased at bearings inc. or other bearing distributors. I found that Max's had them cheaper than the bearing distributors!

I also agree with you that 50 year old technology can be improved upon. Some "purists" don't think so!

PGlaves said:

.....{snip}..... Which is why every bike I now own has pre-lubed sealed bearings that go 100K miles or more......{snip}

Click to expand...

I don't have that kind of faith after doing "sealed" wheel bearings on the rear of the F-800GS. This is a picture of a carefully removed seal from a new bearing-



The other side has 3- "Q-Tip" size dabs of grease. It really didn't seem like enough- to me.

Picture from this thread- https://forums.bmwmoa.org/showthread.php?73076-Rear-wheel-bearings-on-a-F800GS

OM

SCBuckeye said:

The only thing I can figure out is that he mentions removing the bearings from the hub with heat. My guess is that when the bearings are re-installed, they either are in a slightly different location, OR they are not seating the exact same way they were when removed. That would account for the difference in distance between the bearing that would affect bearing preload. On my bike, the inside rear bearing has to be slid some 4" or 5" over the center hub to remove.

On those older bikes, better to replace bearings than to run the risk of a bearing failure - like I had on my front wheel going 60 MPH. I was lucky. I also NOW recommend that everyone purchasing one of those old Airheads to make SURE bearings are well-lubed. I was told when I bought my bike in 2012 (it was a '78 R100/7 used) that it was well maintained. After that incident, I looked and it appeared that my front wheel bearings hadn't been lubed since the bike was new. Those bearings are cheap to buy and can even be purchased at bearings inc. or other bearing distributors. I found that Max's had them cheaper than the bearing distributors!

I also agree with you that 50 year old technology can be improved upon. Some "purists" don't think so!

Click to expand...

The change in pre-load is in the thousandths. The "wedding ring" is adjusted (BMW mechanics have drawers full of varying thicknesses, the amateur uses a few swipes of the file). It is very difficult to describe but easy to understand when it is demonstrated. Maybe there's a good video out there on it. If not, we should ask Matt Parkhouse to do a video after he heals up.

ebeeby said:

The change in pre-load is in the thousandths. The "wedding ring" is adjusted (BMW mechanics have drawers full of varying thicknesses, the amateur uses a few swipes of the file). It is very difficult to describe but easy to understand when it is demonstrated. Maybe there's a good video out there on it. If not, we should ask Matt Parkhouse to do a video after he heals up.

Click to expand...

OK. So I have proper preload. I then remove to manually regrease the bearings. I then reinstall exactly the same hard parts. What would cause the preload to change? What got bigger or smaller?

PGlaves said:

OK. So I have proper preload. I then remove to manually regrease the bearings. I then reinstall exactly the same hard parts. What would cause the preload to change? What got bigger or smaller?

Click to expand...

If you have the proper pre-load, then greasing the bearings would not change it. So, just re-install after servicing the bearings (cleaning and re-packing).

Apparently, the wheel bearing greasers work. In years past I've pulled disintegrated Bearings out of BMW airhead wheels on 8-9 different occasions. In all but one case, it was the inner bearing in the drum hubs. (Although a friend bought a used R100S, didn't check the bearings and lost a rear AND a front on a trip with the front welding itself to the axle). One of the complaints about the greaser tool was that it 'pushes contaminated grease into the bearings' which it may well do in certain situations. However, if like the fellow said, one uses it every 5K miles then the grease wouldn't be dirty enough to matter much particularly if one starts out with clean parts. I learned the heat removal process from factory trained mechanics in 76, got the proper tools and became adept at servicing the bearing stack using heat. I would always suggest someone with a new-to-them airhead remove the bearings for inspection and service. Doing so makes it 'Your' motorcycle when you know the condition.

The bearings are shimmed dry and tight on a tool for that purpose using an inch pound torque wrench with a followup needle to determine the tension. Once shimmed The bearings are greased, tightened the same way and installed in the hub with the same tool. The hub is heated to extract the stack and heated to install the stack. I saw a factory video that showed a woman taking chilled complete bearing sets on a installation tool out of a cooler full of dry ice next to her and plopping them down the holes on heated new hubs like magic. Really, previously shimmed, cleaned and lubricated bearings in good condition with rollers riding in the center of shiny races do not need shimmed again. Clamping pressure on the bearing stack installed on the tool keeps everything exactly where it was, is and should be.

All my swing arm bearings are now sealed type. Wonder why I didn't think of sealed wheel bearings too?

PGlaves said:

You know better than that feeble response. I repeat: If wear of a bearing causing loss of preload is measurable, isn't that a bearing that ought to be replaced? Snarky crap excepted, of course.

Added: Which is why every bike I now own has pre-lubed sealed bearings that go 100K miles or more. Feel free to coddle your antiques but don't pretend that their maintenance is modern maintenance. It is based on 50 year old technology.

Click to expand...

Paul, just my attempt at sarcastic humor. I fully agree with you that if there is a measurable change in preload, the bearing needs to be changed despite some folks thinking new grease will solve the problem. Or don't change the bearing and get to enjoy the fun of sawing through the axle to free the seized wheel stuck in the frame.

Friedle