Dropped off my front and rear wheels at the reputable dealer near me Sunday for new tires, and figured it would be a goodopportunity to change the wheel bearings. My 1987 FLHTC has nearly 60,000 miles, and I don't know if any of the previous owners ever had them done.

I got a call this morningfromthe guy on the service department saying that there are 2.5 hours of labor involvedwith replacing the wheel bearings and seals on both wheels. He also said that there are shims required. I reluctantly told him to go ahead with the job. Has anyone had this kind of work done on their old EVO? Does the labor rate sound average, or is this what I get for having work done in the slow season? Thought I was gonna save some big cash by taking the wheels off the bike myself.

New tires,mounted and balanced
2 new front brake rotors installed, with new bolts
Parts and labor just over $800

Any insight would be appreciated

 

I can't really help but to say it took me 30 additional minutes per wheel to pull the dust seals and repack my wheel bearings. If I had to guess, I would say you were hit for wheel removal (book hours).

 

Yeah, I think they got you good. Your bike is virtually identical to mine. There are no shims. Ask him to show you the shims in the parts book before you pay for them.

 

That seems pretty high considering you took the wheels off, but I do those things myself so I wouldn't know what dealers charge. I also would be interested in what "shims" are involved. If they tagged you for new wheel spacers, I'd want to look at the old ones to see why they needed replacing.

 

On my Evo wire wheels, take out Cclips on both sides, remove dust covers, bearings fall out, tap out old races, tap new races in, pack newbearings with grease, put em back in(make sure the spacer didn't fall out). Replace dustcovers and clips. Done, easily less than an hour.

 

Actually all the HD wheel bearings that aren't sealed (that is all pre 2001 IIRC) have the spacer and shim packs. The shims are there to take up any slack (or add slack)within the components. For my money, 2 hours labour sounds about right to do the job correctly. You need to pull the old seals, clean and inspect the bearings and races and then check the endfloat. This can be done by re-installing the wheel on the bike and torquing to specs (or with the correct number of spacers you can do it in a bench vise). You then mount a magnetic base dial indicator on the brake rotor in order to measure the amount of deflection in the axle. You need between .002" - .006" (I run mine at .004"). This is where the shims come into play. If you have no end float you need to add shims. If you have too much end float then you need to either remove shims (if you have them installed) or you need to remove material from the centre spacer. You then repack and install the bearing (including replacing the race if needed) and then reinstall the seal. You then pack the remaining gap (from bearing to seal) with grease and you're good to go. As far as the cost goes, I wouldn't know becauseI do all my own work. The time factor sounds about right to me though.

Cheers.

 

I take it it's an HD dealer ? It would take me 30 minutes per wheel for both bearing/races plus setting end play but I wasn't a HD shop You did pretty good if that was your first wheel bearing/race replacement !! At that mileage!!

 

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- yes , there are shims.

- yes, its a bitch to get the end-float correct.

- yes , about 2 hours of labour sounds about right.
.

 

Thanks for all of your input.

I've been working on my own cars and bikes forover 30 years, and I just never came across this situation before. I take tires, wheels and brakes very seriously. It is what it is, and it costs what it costs.

I called a couple of other H-D dealers, and they concurred: about 2 hours for the job. Funny thing, though....the service people I spoke to all had the same line: "Your wheels are the only thing between you and the road." I'm not saying thatthe statement is incorrect, it wasjust funny.

 

Every time I took my Stihl Chainsaw in to a dealer, they'd say "oh, you've got an old one, eh?" Twenty years ago (in my mechanic days) Snap On men always had the same lines too. They probably pay extra for the training session on sales lines/ pitches.