Before I start: 1978 R60/7 I have spoked wheels, rear drum brake, front single disc ATE brake. First and foremost, what is pre-load? I'm having trouble understanding it. Secondly, how should the bearing greasing be done and what do you guys use? I thought I read somewhere that people use a greasing machine?
Henry, you've been ignored for over a day because you broke the number one rule - asking questions before you researched on your own. I made the same mistake. As Bill Harris said to me, "Buy a manual". As Disston will tell you, "Don't expect this forum to be your manual." Perhaps try distilling things down to one question instead of a list. These are very knowledgeable people and a very nice bunch but meet them half way and do your homework first. Welcome.
don't stress about the grumpy inmates, just roll with the punches, an easy way to grease bearings is to put the bearing and grease into a ziplock bag, seal it up then just work the grease into the bearing.
Exactly what I was looking for. Do you use Molly 60 or something from Honda? Any idea why someone would suggest using a machine?
No need for a new thread, but now you are killing us. In the midst of reading you changed the thread and deleted that you have an R60/? I think it was a 7. If you just say "R60" that implies you have a 1955 to 1960 bike, but I digress... Year and model REALLY helps. Duane's site has a very good description of the wheel bearings here: http://w6rec.com/duane/bmw/wheel_bearing/ It covers a variety of model years, but read the whole thing and your year is covered. No special "greasing machine" is needed. I put a little grease in the palm of my hand and scrape the bigger end of the tapered cage across my palm until the grease comes out of the top of the cage. Rotate a bit and repeat. Typical automote "disk break wheel bearing grease" will work. Standard auto stuff. Mine is red. Please DO NOT attempt any dissambly of the final drive unit. Really. We can talk about that later. Welcome aboard, Eric
No, moly 60 is only for use on the splines. It is a VERY specific use lubricant. As are as "machine", I don't know exactly what that referes to, but there are two that come to mind. One is this: It then goes on your grease gun. Intended to simplify the task and or minimize mess. Nothing special about it. The other is a tool that lets you grease the bearing with that "stack" installed on the bike. Described in Duane's article I linked above. It is nice to be able to freshen up the grease without a tear down, especially after a lot of wet riding, high mileage trip, etc. But again, nothing "special" that you couldn't do without.
Who's nice? I'm not nice! Especially not to people that just made themselves look as bad as this one did. Another Kafe Racer Kiddie. Gah! he should go read all the airhead cafe racer threads, get to know those people and hang out with them. Someday I'd like to build a real old school airhead racer. Detune it enough to run on the street, leave the battery and alternator alone and hold all the bullshit cliche fashion stuff. It would be what it is supposed to be and the look follows that, so it looks right. 1000cc short stroke engine lifted and angled, Mikuni TMs, spoke wheels, Race bullet fairing, small tank, Chopped seat (no cowls please), rearsets, clipons, oversize disks w/ brembo 4 piston calipers, everything not needed ground off the frame. And boy would it run.
The Walus greaser is used on the captive bearing on the /5. Real hassle to grease it otherwise. The thing is also great on any bearing in hand. Just gives a nice flush so you don't have to clean it. I use mine on both the bike and my trailer.
If you read the manual, why did you have an 11/16 wrench in your hand? Not mentioning "cafe racer" is smart. Stick to the cafe racer crowd for that. Not mentioning full model and year is not smart. If you hammered the bearing out you just destroyed them. Replace with new. The things fall out in your hand (with one exception) and are incredibly long lived. Barring abuse (high pressure washing) they don't wear out. The history of the bike and obvious problems determine your priorities. You already declared your priorities by doing the paint first. I leave you to it.
Kind of a bumpy start but what the heck - at least they're talking to you now. Yes, year and model is a must. Good luck!
To be fair, the manual I'm using (Haynes) didn't specify the actual size of socket I should be using, but just simply to remove the nut. I'm not the only one that made the assumption that it was 11/16 I'll make sure to leave off the cafe racer part next time, though it doesn't really change my question, just some general background knowledge on the project. I guess we could go into the true definition of a cafe racer, and what I've already done differently to hinder my bike from being a true cafe racer, but again, it doesn't greatly affect the answer to my question. I've added the model and year, that was accidental and a mistake on my part. I wasn't concerned about damaging the bearings, they were going to be replaced either way, in my original post, I was talking about damaging the inner hub, gouging it to be more specific. Over the last 3 months, I've modified the bike and built it the way I had intended. I'm now at the point of tearing it back down for paint and reassembly. I don't see any sense in replacing bearings and seals during the mock up / initial design & simplification process, then removing them for paint. Thank you
Thanks for the knowledge. I did a little more research and found a link to what they were talking about in the post I read awhile back. Here's the link. You nailed it on that last part. Thanks again.
I've added the year and model. Thanks for the heads up. Totally missed that I didn't include it. I'm glad you mentioned not taking apart the final drive unit. I don't believe there was even any documentation in my manual, but I assumed that the seals I can see should be replaced before reassembling the bike. I also wanted to powder the hub with the final drive unit inside of it, but cannot do so until it's apart and all the seals are removed. Maybe I should stick with polishing it. Thanks again on the grease recommendation. I'm glad it's just the regular stuff.
