Harley Bearings Warning
Seasoned HDF Member
Joined: Jul 2011
Posts: 27,097
Likes: 4,676
From: Frozelandia, Minnysota
The forum has categories for posts like this, but since it's here, this is what I put in another thread about wheel bearings and still applies:
Do a forum search on "wheel bearings" and you'll see a lot of low mileage bearing failures.
Suggestions:
Don't buy Harley bearings for replacements, get American made if you can, can't find those, seems nobody is having any problems with AllBalls which come packed with Chevron synthetic (most bearings, who knows what's in them). Pop a seal off the new ones and see what kind of grease and how much. If it's translucent, like vaseline, clean it out and pack with a good quality name brand synthetic. You can't pull metal ones without ruining them, best to get plastic to start with. I've heard the latest Harley bearings have metal shields over plastic, so you can't check the grease in them.
I pulled a wheel bearing with plastic ball cages, and they were grinding plastic grit into the grease, I'd never use a bearing with those. Some cheap bearings (Harley?) have flimsy metal ball cages, you want sturdy steel - AllBalls have the heaviest I've seen lately, look as good as Timken, but they are made in China.
Never get a power washer or car wash wand near your wheel bearings, it can blast water and grit into the bearings.
Harley bearings have a primary side that the bearing needs to be bottomed out in first, that's the disk side on single disk wheels. Duals, check the manual. Then the other is pressed in till it just contacts the inner spacer with no preload. This is a critical installation process, If not a Harley mechanic, make sure your indie knows this, hopefully he does already. Bottom both bearings out, they'll self destruct pretty quick.
It should be fairly simple, get quality bearings, grease them enough, install the bearings properly. One of those three steps just isn't getting done on too many Harleys. Personally, I think grease is the culprit most often, just not good enough and/or not enough of it.
Do a forum search on "wheel bearings" and you'll see a lot of low mileage bearing failures.
Suggestions:
Don't buy Harley bearings for replacements, get American made if you can, can't find those, seems nobody is having any problems with AllBalls which come packed with Chevron synthetic (most bearings, who knows what's in them). Pop a seal off the new ones and see what kind of grease and how much. If it's translucent, like vaseline, clean it out and pack with a good quality name brand synthetic. You can't pull metal ones without ruining them, best to get plastic to start with. I've heard the latest Harley bearings have metal shields over plastic, so you can't check the grease in them.
I pulled a wheel bearing with plastic ball cages, and they were grinding plastic grit into the grease, I'd never use a bearing with those. Some cheap bearings (Harley?) have flimsy metal ball cages, you want sturdy steel - AllBalls have the heaviest I've seen lately, look as good as Timken, but they are made in China.
Never get a power washer or car wash wand near your wheel bearings, it can blast water and grit into the bearings.
Harley bearings have a primary side that the bearing needs to be bottomed out in first, that's the disk side on single disk wheels. Duals, check the manual. Then the other is pressed in till it just contacts the inner spacer with no preload. This is a critical installation process, If not a Harley mechanic, make sure your indie knows this, hopefully he does already. Bottom both bearings out, they'll self destruct pretty quick.
It should be fairly simple, get quality bearings, grease them enough, install the bearings properly. One of those three steps just isn't getting done on too many Harleys. Personally, I think grease is the culprit most often, just not good enough and/or not enough of it.
Extreme HDF Member
Joined: Sep 2008
Posts: 15,793
Likes: 1,133
From: NorCal916
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Joe Kucinski
Cruiser
Joined: May 2018
Posts: 117
Likes: 21
From: Minnesota
That corrosion in there suggests water from some source. If you are using a pressure washer on your bike I would say stop doing it. Especially near the wheel bearings. Also it looks like there's little to no grease in there. It may have been washed out by the water spray. Bearings should last a lot longer. Other than that, you are lucky you caught this in time. If the dealer is still servicing your MC, they should have caught this, and recommended replacement. Lastly, the outer plastic bearing cover is in bad shape. (Completely missing) There is obviously dirt in there further causing damage to the bearings. Count your blessings that you avoided near catastrophic bearing failure, and that it only cost you 65 Dollars to fix. Good Luck! 
