My ride is 07 softail standard with 24,000 miles. my front wheel bearings are shot and the dealer wont be open till tuesday. my question is are the wheel bearings under warrenty. Thanks everyone.

 

Yep. they just changed mine at 14000 miles and they also checked my back ones. maybe there is something they are not saying

 

How can you tell if the front wheel bearing are shot??

 

Its less than 2 years old, soeven if you didn't get the extended coverage they should be covered.
Coyotejoe.
Believe me, if you everhave a bearing go out on you, you'll be the first to know it.
Most of the time they start to sound funny. Pick the bike up and hand spin the wheel and it might sound like it has sand or in bad cases rocks in there. Leave it too long and you will be able to move the tire sideways by hand from the excess clearance.
If you try to picture the setup in your head its easy to see how it works. The bearings are clamped between the swingarm or fork tubes by the axle. But they are held a set distance apart by a spacer in between. Along with spacers on both sides to locate the wheel and hold the swing arm or fork tubes a set distance apart.
So you have the axle going through the fork, a spacer, the bearing on one side, a sleeve spacer inside the wheel,the bearing on the other side, another spacer, then the fork tube. The wheel never actually touches the axle but rides on the bearings themselves. Sothe axle and spacers are holding the bearings in a fixed position by the inner races. Any excess play in the bearing itselfwill actually be multiplied by the distance between the rim/tire combination and the hub.
For example on a 21" wheel.010" slop in the bearings will translate into almost .100" of movement 10" away at the tire. I know that doesn't sound like much, but any slop in the bearings is going to beabout TEN times greater at the rim.
Sorry for the long winded explination, but your not the first guy, and I doubt the last who will ask about it.

 

Thanks guys I will make that appointment today. If it wasn't under warrenty it's a easy fix.

 

thanks Citoriplus,

It was agood explaination. I had a wobble in the front end last summer, and dealer claimed to have taken everything apart and checked, and couldn't find anything wrong - funny thing it doesn't wobble any more. The dealer also said they have no way of telling if something is out of spec or not, they just disassemble, inspect and reassemble to specs. I would think they would have checked the bike out really good in the process for this case. I'm going to havethe bikeon my brothers bike lift in a couple weeks to change the oils, I'll check the wheels for play as long as I have it suspended.

Thanks again

 

Just called 2 dealers today and they both said its a wearible item and not under warrenty. They said they should be changed every 20,000 miles. I'm just going to change them myself . There only 20+ each. Why waste a saturday hassling over 40 dollars.

 

They probably 'fixed' a loose or improperly setup wheel bearing in the process of pulling things apart and putting it back together. He was right, there really is no way to "test" a wheel that I know of other than common sense and a little experience. You can set up a dial indicator to see if its running true, but that's really looking at the rimrunout more than the bearings themselves.
If on the other hand you grab the tire at the front and back and try to turn it and 'feel' it kind of like click, it might need to be pulled apart to check, repacked with grease (non-sealed types) and reassembled to spec.
Good luck and let me know what you find, I'm always curious to see what people find out.

Soft02, Didn't realize the bearings were so cheap, whoda thunk that about a Harley part. Or I would have suggested replacing them in the first place.