1991 K75RT rear wheel bearing

[xcaret]

I took my front and rear wheels along with 2 new tires to a bike shop to be mounted . They phoned to say I needed front wheel bearings and they are going to install them.

I'm wondering about rear wheel bearings now.
I started looking in my online BMW OEM manual, and it appears to be a huge job, with soecial tools needed.

I'm mechanically able to do things not involving specialty tools and/or training ..
Is this something You folks do yourselves ?

 

[1074]

Is this bike shop familiar with K-bikes? Did you check your bearings before taking the wheels in? That is easy to do and you can find out how to do that from many sources.
You didn't mention how many miles are on the bike. My original front bearings are good at 50k plus miles.
As long as the bike has been serviced regularly I wouldn't worry about the rear bearings as they should last a very long time. Be more concerned with clutch and driveshaft splines.

 

[pglaves]

I took my front and rear wheels along with 2 new tires to a bike shop to be mounted . They phoned to say I needed front wheel bearings and they are going to install them.

I'm wondering about rear wheel bearings now.
I started looking in my online BMW OEM manual, and it appears to be a huge job, with soecial tools needed.

I'm mechanically able to do things not involving specialty tools and/or training ..
Is this something You folks do yourselves ?

A BMW K75 does not even have wheel bearings within the normal meaning of that term. The wheel simply bolts to the hub protruding from the final drive (FD). The final drive does contain three bearings. One, the pinion bearing simply carries the pinion gear to which the driveshaft attaches with a set of splines. The pinion gear engages the ring gear which is what actually turns the rear wheel.

The weight of the motorcycle on the rear wheel is supported by one large deep groove ball bearing and one tapered roller bearing. These bearings support the ring gear which is driven by the pinion gear and the wheel bolts to the hub portion of the ring gear. The gears and the bearings run in an oil bath internal to the final drive.

Bearing failures on BMW K75 final drives are very rare - almost unheard of. Some later models - most notably K1200LT, R1100GS and R1150GS bikes did suffer a notorious incidence of final drive bearing failures although the actual percentage of failures was rather small. I rode a K75 for 370,000 miles on the original FD bearings. We have had a few more K75s with over 100,000 miles that also had original FD bearings. I have never needed to replace a final drive bearing on a K75.

So this is a rather long winded post to say, don't worry about rear wheel bearings on a BMW K75.

 

[gregfeeler]

A BMW K75 does not even have wheel bearings within the normal meaning of that term. The wheel simply bolts to the hub protruding from the final drive (FD). The final drive does contain three bearings. One, the pinion bearing simply carries the pinion gear to which the driveshaft attaches with a set of splines. The pinion gear engages the ring gear which is what actually turns the rear wheel.

The weight of the motorcycle on the rear wheel is supported by one large deep groove ball bearing and one tapered roller bearing. These bearings support the ring gear which is driven by the pinion gear and the wheel bolts to the hub portion of the ring gear. The gears and the bearings run in an oil bath internal to the final drive.

Bearing failures on BMW K75 final drives are very rare - almost unheard of. Some later models - most notably K1200LT, R1100GS and R1150GS bikes did suffer a notorious incidence of final drive bearing failures although the actual percentage of failures was rather small. I rode a K75 for 370,000 miles on the original FD bearings. We have had a few more K75s with over 100,000 miles that also had original FD bearings. I have never needed to replace a final drive bearing on a K75.

So this is a rather long winded post to say, don't worry about rear wheel bearings on a BMW K75.

100% what Paul said.

 

[xcaret]

rear wheel bearing ....

Thanks for all your advise . Yes the shop works on Harley's Ducatti's and BMW's , so I was in good hands . I was shown the front wheel bearings ,one was quite loose .
As for the rear set of bearings in the hub, the shop told me not to worry, but see if the wheel has play by pushing and pulling the tire . .
Oh I didn't mention the bike,s a 1991 K75 RT with 86,000 Km's on it . The previous owner took great care of it , and recently had the spines done ,plus he replaced the fuel pump and hoses .

 

[gregfeeler]

Thanks for all your advise . Yes the shop works on Harley's Ducatti's and BMW's , so I was in good hands . I was shown the front wheel bearings ,one was quite loose .
As for the rear set of bearings in the hub, the shop told me not to worry, but see if the wheel has play by pushing and pulling the tire . .
Oh I didn't mention the bike,s a 1991 K75 RT with 86,000 Km's on it . The previous owner took great care of it , and recently had the spines done ,plus he replaced the fuel pump and hoses .

You should be very good to go. Checking the real wheel side to side play is just good maintenance, but as Paul said, K75 rear drive bearing problems are very rare. Another reason these are really fine motorcycles to live with.