Just wanted to give everyone with a 2009 touring bike the heads up that it might not hurt to keep your eyes on your front wheel bearings.

I rode my FLHX over to my dealer today to have the front tire replaced under the current service bulletin. The tech replacing the tire determined that the front wheel bearings had failed. This surprised me because my 2009 Street Glide only has 5300 miles on it.

Wonder if it's possible that the cupped tire and he resulting vibration caused the bearings to fail prematurely? Bad news is that my dealer only had 1 of the 2 bearings in stock and I had to leave my bike there for a couple of days. Hopefully these bearings will be covered under warranty...

 

I guess so much for the 100,000 mile sealed bearings. I installed new bearings at 23,000 miles when I changed rims, the old bearings seemed fine.

There have been other reports on the forum about early failure (less than 10K miles).

 

I had a major front wheel bearing failure had to be trailered away, here is the thread I started with pictures.

https://www.hdforums.com/forum/touri...ase-marks.html

 

If you have the cast wheels, like I have on my 09 SG, it was possibly caused by sand/grit left inside the wheel hub at the factory.

When having my front tire replaced at the dealer, the tech could hear something rolling around inside the hub. Pulled the bearings and sure enough, a good amount of sand came out of the hub. Tech says mine was the 3rd 09 bike he saw with sand inside the hub.

They replaced the bearings in the front wheel and to be on the safe side, on the rear wheel too.

Q/C is not like it used to be........

 

Just a follow up on Bearings. Also 2009 Street Glide 15,700 miles, wheel bearings are shot. It is covered under extended warranty but have to wait a over a week to get bike in.

 

Have 2009 Street Glide ABS, front and rear wheel bearings replace at 15K. To note: Sand found in rear wheel hub after bearings were removed. Gotta love the their quality control!

 

replaced front bearings on 09 SG at 43K miles.

 

i have o9 sg 8500 miles replacing front bearings. the front left was shot. had a noise when leaning left then started getting vibration in handle bars. the seals are in good shape just feels ruff as hell. the factory bearing # is hd9276 f-559018 dk. called albert b. crush they cross ref. them and said they had them for $11.00 a piece. going to get them now. i will let everyone know what their part # is and what brand they are. good luck steven.

 

Grit inside the wheel hub sounds almost like a disgruntled former (hopefully) employee at the factory.

 

Left & Right fwd wheel bearings failed @ 55,000 kM (35,000 miles) on my 09 Eglide UC.

Front end started vibrating and handlebars started to wobble back and forth.

HD is presently advertising, on their website, 100,000 mile bearings on the new 2013 Touring bikes. They must of done something to the bearings. As far as I can tell the bearing part #'s are the same for 09 to 13 wheels. Rumour has it HD bought the 09 bearings from some Chinese manufacturer. Apparently they were inferior and the new bearings are supposed to be better quality.

SKF has a bearing to replace the bearings on non-ABS bikes and the one side of the ABS bike. The bearing on the ABS pickup side, is only available from HD. This bearing has notches in it for the ABS magnetic pickup.