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I have a 1990 Harley electra glide classic FLHTC. I did not realize these older bikes had tapered roller bearings in them, I did not clean and grease them last year, and unfortunately one got some water and ended up ruining a bearing. Not a big deal, at all. I replaced the bearings and races, which was the front wheel. I checked end play dry with the old spacers, and it came out about .003" and that seemed good. I put it back together greased and all is well. The back wheel bearings were fine, I only cleaned and greased them. When I tested them with their shims, I found .010" end play. Everything I saw online said .002" to .006" is spec. I replaced a .016" shim with an .008" shim, and have right at .002" end play. I greased them and put it back together, everything seemed fine. I then went into my service manual to find some torque specs, and lo and behold, the end play for a 1990 in this service manual says .004" to .018".
So is having my rear wheel this tight a problem? Do I need to pull it back off?
Crazy. So where is this .002" to .006" coming from? According to Google, which of course just lied to me about the specs too, Harley used tapered bearings from 1973 to 1999. A quick check shows it was always the exact same Timken part number for all of those years, installed in the exact same way. Did they ever spec .002" to .006" or is that just some internet rumor from somebody that thinks they know better? It's not just a one off thing either, every single forum I check says the same number. I can't even find the correct end play unless I type those in, and the only reference I find is another guy who looked in the service manual. Even the youtube videos I watched before doing it myself all say .002" to .006".
Tapered wheel bearings with grease lubrication need a little freeplay (no preload). If tight, they will squeeze the grease out and run dry..
Heat with them facing each other when hot could eat up that 0.002.
I read the above years ago in a 1969 GMC PontIc manual.
I see that 0.004 to 0.018 in an OEM Harley manual.
Dan's 0.010 is very close to middle of OEM specification.
Well that's definitely not true, and hopefully this thread helps someone to not fall in that trap. I've worked on a ton of different tapered roller bearings. Just as many have a pre load (less than .000" gap), as have some gap. The only other ones I've ever worked on that had a shim setup like Harley is a transmission. Grease has nothing to do with it. As I said, a ton of them spec preload. An 80's-90's era ford truck (probably 70's too if TTB) for example uses greased tapered wheel bearings, and the spec for those is a preload to the nut. Other common examples would be trailers, which typically you tighten to a preload, then back off to the next notch on the castle nut for a slight gap. Another common example would be a differential, which is typically under a preload set by a crush washer and torque spec, so it's under the same preload even when hot.
It's all over the map. If it was only Google AI, that would be on me, but there's people on youtube claiming to be honest Harley service techs still giving out the wrong spec. All of the forums are talking about the wrong spec. Even when you spoon feed AI the spec like you did, it's still giving you the wrong one.
I have a 1990 Harley electra glide classic FLHTC. I did not realize these older bikes had tapered roller bearings in them, I did not clean and grease them last year, and unfortunately one got some water and ended up ruining a bearing. Not a big deal, at all. I replaced the bearings and races, which was the front wheel. I checked end play dry with the old spacers, and it came out about .003" and that seemed good. I put it back together greased and all is well. The back wheel bearings were fine, I only cleaned and greased them. When I tested them with their shims, I found .010" end play. Everything I saw online said .002" to .006" is spec. I replaced a .016" shim with an .008" shim, and have right at .002" end play. I greased them and put it back together, everything seemed fine. I then went into my service manual to find some torque specs, and lo and behold, the end play for a 1990 in this service manual says .004" to .018".
So is having my rear wheel this tight a problem? Do I need to pull it back off?
I got 100,000 out of the bearings on my 1989 ElectraGlide buy maintaining according to the manual. I ordered the bearing seal in lots of 10, that was 2.5 tire changes.
It's all over the map. If it was only Google AI, that would be on me, but there's people on youtube claiming to be honest Harley service techs still giving out the wrong spec. All of the forums are talking about the wrong spec. Even when you spoon feed AI the spec like you did, it's still giving you the wrong one.
So, it`s not your fault, because the internet information you trusted was inaccurate...
There is no requirement for youtube or AI or Google to give you accurate technical information.
Read post #6.
Pull the wheels off your bike and set the end play to the proper spec.
Last edited by Dan89FLSTC; Apr 26, 2026 at 01:16 PM.
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Wheel bearing end play
