My First Issue

BritTwit said:
Has anyone ever seen this on a BST wheel before?
Can it be the result of an improperly sized spacer between the bearings?
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I doubt it. I am waiting to hear from Kev.
 
I'm throwing this out to anyone here because I'm not going to hear from Kev til next week. From my own photos I believe I am looking at 2 side by side wheel bearings - does anyone see that? The damaged one inside the sprocket clamp and one behind the circlip.
 
BritTwit said:
Exactly what it looks like to me.
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Now I'm wondering if they were installed separately. The BST wheels actually replaced the stock wheels that were already mounted when the bike was delivered to MCC.
 
Hi , There are two bearings inside the wheel . one on each side of a long spacer. And there is a separate bearing on the sprocket carrier itself. The sprocket carrier bearing is blown and the seal has come off. The other bearings in the wheel are hard to say because the rubber seal is still on. There looks like a lot of anti sieze paste being used on assembly. Too much. Only grease on my axles when they come off for new tires etc . All bearings need to be replaced in that wheel . that's what I would do. Replace all those bearings and spacers that got damaged. You can get all of those bearings from a bearing supplier if the parts get delayed from Norton. All the bearing numbers are in the service manual and don't skimp on the bearings , buy good quality. Put some black paint on the inside of the swing arm and you won't even notice it.
 
TonyA said:
Hi , There are two bearings inside the wheel . one on each side of a long spacer. And there is a separate bearing on the sprocket carrier itself. The sprocket carrier bearing is blown and the seal has come off. The other bearings in the wheel are hard to say because the rubber seal is still on. There looks like a lot of anti sieze paste being used on assembly. Too much. Only grease on my axles when they come off for new tires etc . All bearings need to be replaced in that wheel . that's what I would do. Replace all those bearings and spacers that got damaged. You can get all of those bearings from a bearing supplier if the parts get delayed from Norton. All the bearing numbers are in the service manual and don't skimp on the bearings , buy good quality. Put some black paint on the inside of the swing arm and you won't even notice it.
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Great advice, Tony. I have a guy with expertise that can do this for me. What do you think about roller bearings as opposed to the stock ball bearings?

Peter
 
If you could even find rollers in the right size , they are not for this application. Roller bearings should be used when there is only a radial loading . The nature of wheels are radial and axial loads. This is a NO in my opinion. Stay away from excessive use of antisieze paste in this area . If any antisieze is used it must only be a very thin coat on axle itself. Just the axle. and a very small amount ! I do not use it in this application.
 
Wow. So glad the bolt didn't hit the horizontal surface of that swing arm and lock up on you. Your cush drive grommets still look great compared to the non metal sleeved ones. Sorry for your hassles. Shouldn't happen to a low mileage bike like that.
 
I would very carefully measure all spacer tubes etc and their relevant fitting areas if I were you.

A correctly fitted wheel bearing should last tens of thousands of miles. Of course, you could just have a 'dud' but its also possible that a missing, or too short, spacer has resulted in accessive side loading when torqued up.
 
Fast Eddie said:
I would very carefully measure all spacer tubes etc and their relevant fitting areas if I were you.

A correctly fitted wheel bearing should last tens of thousands of miles. Of course, you could just have a 'dud' but its also possible that a missing, or too short, spacer has resulted in [excessive] side loading when torqued up.
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Hard to believe the extra 9 Nm (109 instead of the 100 Nm stated in the newer manuals) could have done this. That could be considered excessive side loading in this case. But again, I was hearing what I believed to be noise from the chain before I torqued it up. I was adjusting it for the 2nd time in one week in case I had it too tight. I also found the locknut too easy to loosen, hence the reason I went with the torque wrench in the first place.

I plan to clean it up after taking more detailed photos for whoever might need them. Stanley Lynde, the local motorcycle rebuild/repair expert, will have a look at the wheel this week. The only piece I will need to wait for is that spacer. I really hope it won't delay the repair because I am quite anxious to get back in that saddle. The Speed Triple is reliable (though sometimes hard to start), but not nearly as much fun. :|
 
TonyA said:
Hi , There are two bearings inside the wheel . one on each side of a long spacer. And there is a separate bearing on the sprocket carrier itself. The sprocket carrier bearing is blown and the seal has come off. The other bearings in the wheel are hard to say because the rubber seal is still on. There looks like a lot of anti sieze paste being used on assembly. Too much. Only grease on my axles when they come off for new tires etc . All bearings need to be replaced in that wheel . that's what I would do. Replace all those bearings and spacers that got damaged. You can get all of those bearings from a bearing supplier if the parts get delayed from Norton. All the bearing numbers are in the service manual and don't skimp on the bearings , buy good quality. Put some black paint on the inside of the swing arm and you won't even notice it.
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I agree with everything Tony said 100%. Bearings are one of the most easily sourced parts locally, no need to pay UK shipping if you do't need other parts! Get the best , bearings come in several different grades.

I am going to inspect my rear end before the next ride!!! :shock: :shock:
 
BPHORSEGUY said:
I am going to inspect my rear end before the next ride!!! :shock: :shock:
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Ha ha!! :lol: Got everybody nervous now.

I do intend to use the best quality bearings from here in the States. If Stanley doesn't stock the best then I'll have him order them. However, I still need to wait for that one spacer. Hopefully, Kev at Norton UK can expedite that.
 
So a side story. I do a lot of work for the tattoo industry. In a rotary tattoo machine there is a 10mm bearing. When sourcing I found big differences in prices. Two bearings of very different prices both meet iso standard. Fits are within tenths. Well within tolerance. The bearings were $6.50 cdn each and $2.50 cdn each buying 2,500 at a time. Same spec, same fit, no brainer, save $10,000. We had both in our hands and measured for accuracy. Jeez, how can the japan bearings be soo much more than the Chinese??. Any how, 4 months later. The first units were getting returned for noise issues. This was a new product so we did all kinds of investigations. Long story short over 5weeks. The decibel read out was over 7 decibels swing with the chinese and only a swing of 3 decibels for japan when checking samples of 100 bearings for noise. When checking drag and all that, same thing. So same spec doesnt mean same product. It means the sizes are within spec. Not the entire bearing. Don't cheap out. If its double the price, there may be a reason.
 
Interestingly enough the best bearings in the world are not necessrily American, there are great bearings from Germany and Asia though not China!
 
contours said:
BPHORSEGUY said:
I am going to inspect my rear end before the next ride!!! :shock: :shock:
Click to expand...

Ha ha!! :lol: Got everybody nervous now.

I do intend to use the best quality bearings from here in the States. If Stanley doesn't stock the best then I'll have him order them. However, I still need to wait for that one spacer. Hopefully, Kev at Norton UK can expedite that.
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You don't have to wait for Kev. Contact Callum.Doyle@nortonmotorcycles.com He gets my email, packages and sends it right out. 4 days average to NY. You'll be asked by billing to send a wire transfer but they have been nice enough to take credit card via email. They don't keep it on file.
 
Thanks for that info, Britfan. I asked Kev how to get things ordered, but you beat him to it.
 
The good news from Stanley Lynde is that I did nothing to cause the bearing to blow out. He believes the wheel was improperly assembled. The fit was not tight enough and the balls had too much mobility and eventually popped. The popping sound I kept hearing!

What comes next I don't know. But I need a new sprocket carrier among other things. :cry:
 
BritTwit said:
Can it be the result of an improperly sized spacer between the bearings?
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I'm with BritTwit and FastEddie, while you have it apart anyway I would definitely compare the length of the bearing spacer to the distance between the bearing stops in the hub. Too short (or too long) and it's going to put increased lateral load on the bearings and overheat them causing premature failure.

I'm not a 961 owner so not 100% familiar with the setup, but one thing that puzzles me is that from the pics you posted it looks as though only the sprocket carrier bearing failed. If that is the case the wheel shouldn't have been wobbling around, only the sprocket. Or has the other bearing blown as well?

It may be a trick of the light, but those cush drive bushes look to be inserted at different heights, one at least appears to be proud, while the other are recessed. I guess that could also cause runout on the sprocket carrier and load the bearing due to misalignment if it can't seat fully on the hub. (Especially if it happens to get overtightened) :oops:

Again maybe the camera, but the area around one of the Allen bolt heads (which I presume insert into the cush drive bushes?) looks to be discoloured compared to the others. Perhaps that's an indication of what has been happening.

Cheers,

Cliff
 
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