Rear wheel bearing disintegrated in rural Moldova, need advice asap please.

HI Guys,

2008 F650GS Twin
18,000 Miles on the clock

Just across the border from Moldova today I started to feel a bit of a lump in the rotation of the rear wheel. Stopped, checked, rear wheel bearing had the tiniest click in it but I ignored it...

We kept going and 60 k's from Chisinau (the capital) the rear wheel shat itself. Took it apart and the rear wheel bearing has disintegrated, as per the other thread running here on this topic.

We were very lucky and though some serious charades and a few phone calls with a woman in a shop a guy who spoke basic English came, he got his brother who spoke better English on the phone, he had a van and was a great guy, long story short, now we are in Chisinau and I need to get this fixed asap.

Now I am going totry and chase down new rear wheel bearings tomorrow but I need to know, see picture below, this metal tube for the tyre (name please anyone?) seems to have got damaged on the end in the process. Is this divot on the end of this normal? Or is it fucked and do I need to get a new one, bearings are fairly standard, should be able to find those in Moldova, this on the other hand...



Any help, advice on this one would be appreciated. We are not going anywhere until we fix this...

Cheers.

I looked on the microfiche and it shows as part #7 but not showing up,just 6 and 8,skipping 7.
At any rate,I would think the bearing race grooved it.
I would recommend reversing the ends and see if that works.
Clean up any rough edges and I think you would be good to go.

The bearing sizes are:
Sprocket side,6204-2RS
And 20x47x14 for the other side.

Good luck!

07 Spacer sleeve, interior 1


K72 F 650 GS (0218,0228) * * Cast rim, rear




Should it have a flange on one end? Has that been ground off?

It looks like there are 3 bearings , 2 x part 6 and 1 x part 14


06 GROOVED BALL BEARING 20X47X14 2 07119903603 $16.24 +core


14 GROOVED BALL BEARING 6204-2RS 1 07119981221 $20.30

Okay this is where it gets annoying... if I look at the diagram above, part number 7 refers to
<table border="0" cellspacing="0"><tbody><tr><td class="r00">07</td><td class="r01">Spacer sleeve, interior</td><td class="r00 p1">
</td><td class="r01">1</td><td class="r00">
</td><td class="r01">
</td><td class="r00" nowrap="nowrap">36317695888</td><td class="r01" align="right" nowrap="nowrap">$32.15</td></tr></tbody></table>




This is the parts diagram for the rear wheel on Max BMW. It shows 2 sleeves. I cannot find the smaller inner sleeve for the life of me so I don't know why they have it in the diagram.

Max BMW refers to it as <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tbody><tr><td style="width: 17px; border-bottom: solid 1px #666;" align="center">08</td><td style="width: 85px; border-left: solid 1px #ddd; border-bottom: solid 1px #666; font-weight: bold;" align="left"> 36 31 7 695 888</td><td style="width: 265px; border-left: solid 1px #ddd; border-bottom: solid 1px #666; font-family: Arial Narrow;" align="left"> SPACER SLEEVE, INTERIOR</td><td style="width: 30px; border-left: solid 1px #ddd; border-bottom: solid 1px #666;" align="right">0.25 </td><td style="width: 35px; border-left: solid 1px #ddd; border-bottom: solid 1px #666;" align="right">1 </td><td style="border-left: solid 1px #ddd; border-bottom: solid 1px #666; width: 70px;" align="right">$30.02</td></tr></tbody></table>
Same part number! But it looks different in both. One part has the flange, the other doesn't.

Also I can't for the life of me find part number 3 - The exterior spacer sleeve. So I have no idea where that has gone, I checked thoroughly to make sure no parts came out when I pulled the rear wheel off on the side of the road, so maybe it got chewed up and spat out.

The other thing that shat itself was the shaft seal, got chewed up in the mix. So that is this one.
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tbody><tr><td style="width: 17px; border-bottom: solid 1px #666;" align="center">04</td><td style="width: 85px; border-left: solid 1px #ddd; border-bottom: solid 1px #666; font-weight: bold;" align="left"> 07 11 9 906 005</td><td style="width: 265px; border-left: solid 1px #ddd; border-bottom: solid 1px #666; font-family: Arial Narrow;" align="left"> SHAFT SEAL - AS30X47X7</td><td style="width: 30px; border-left: solid 1px #ddd; border-bottom: solid 1px #666;" align="right">0.02 </td><td style="width: 35px; border-left: solid 1px #ddd; border-bottom: solid 1px #666;" align="right">1 </td><td style="border-left: solid 1px #ddd; border-bottom: solid 1px #666; width: 70px;" align="right">$15.18</td></tr></tbody></table>
(Another point to note is that in the picture you have posted above, the part numbers for 4 and 16 are exactly the same yet they show them as drastically different sizes.

- Looks like I need to buy part 3, 4 and part 7 for starters. Not going anywhere without them, so whether or not I would need to buy the interior spacer sleeve is a moot point - might as well get it.


---------------------------------------------------------------

On to the next part. Slight damage to the wheel hub,









There has been some slight damage to the hub, but it seems to be mostly on the outside and I think I will still be able to get a shaft seal in there. There is some slight damage on the inside but it is just a slight couple of small gouges into the hub, you can see it in the top picture the best right near where the pinholes on the lock ring is.

If BMW are going to do this on my used bike warranty then I will hit them up for an entire new wheel. Otherwise I think it will be fine, may need to give the outside a gentle filing to get it back to flush.

Just thinking, realistically I am probably out of used warranty with BMW, but will call them today anyway.

Plan is to get different brand bearings somewhere here in Moldova if possible, rather than get the same cheap chinese ones that BMW uses (and paying too much for them).

Will maybe try and order the other parts I need so they get here as quickly as possible. Anyone know the best place to order parts from in Europe?

First things first, breakfast, then call BMW.

Just read about your problems,and that you have had a response from Woody ---You could not be in more capable hands

than this.

Woody is the CMFIC of world renowned Woodys Wheel Works of Denver Colorado USA & he knows his chit --Follow

his advise to the tee and you'll be fine. And don't panic that he's giving you advise from Viet-Nam as I believe that he is on

his own RTW--- So pay attention, Woody, will get you up & running in no time.

Cheers Belstaff!

Looks like we will be here in Chisinau for a few days.

It sucks that it is the weekend, but that's okay. I have one mechanics name. Plan is to go to them, get a quote on them to do the whole job and if it is reasonable I will just let them do it.

Otherwise I will buy the parts and go to a mechanic with the bearing removal tools and get them to put the wheel back together. Then put it back on the bike.

Meanwhile, I found another issue...the ABS sensor ring on the front has a little bend in it... must have happened while we were loading the bike into the van. Does anyone know if/how this will effect the bike? It's $60 to replace but I think that if it just gets taken off then you could work it back to flat with a hammer.

This gap between the sensor and the ring is one of those critical dimensions.

Fred

Yeah I thought so, the part doesn't cost too much, so might be worth just getting it.

As for the wheel, I am becoming increasingly less optimistic and will probably need to get a new cast wheel by the looks of things.

Luckily we are closer to Germany and it looks like the parts are cheaper here. 460 Euro for the cast wheel compared to about 700 Euro in the US.

The problem is going to be the time to get the part, we are looking at 10-12 days for Moldova. It may make more sense for us to pay to get towed back across the border to Iasi in Romania. Will see, need to eat now and strategise what to do next with some food in the stomach.

I have bent the abs ring on the rear wheel. The ABS warning light came on. After straightening the ring the warning light went off. As long as the sensor can get a consistent signal I would think you would be fine. YMMV.

David

Cheers mate, yeah I figured if I couldn't fix it before getting on the road I could turn ABS off. What I was worried about was that the front brakes would start playing up all the time. I can't really test it due to the back wheel problem, and don't want to sort the back wheel problem only to find out I have to deal with the front wheel also.

If you straighten the ring (e.g. in a vice) it will work fine. As David said it just needs to get a signal, and the gap must be within the tolerance.

If the front ring is defective it's also not a big deal, the ABS will simply shut down and the warning light will come on. It will under no circumstances apply the brakes. I have done hundreds of kilometers without the front ABS ring and as soon as you put it back on you the ABS works again normally.

Legendary, cheers Lukas.

I am going with another BMW rider to mechanic tomorrow morning to find out with situation with the bike and will let you know about the wheel by tomorrow evening. Cheers for your help.

Sounds good mate.

BTW I found out that the bare wheel weighs about 6 kg so the shipping should be about 20% cheaper than I estimated.

Good luck tomorrow!

So took the wheel this afternoon with help from the Crazy Russian.

Took about an hour and a half to get the wheel bearing out. The inner spacer had gouged out a little path just past the seat of the bearing but it was okay.

They actually used the lathe to cut me a new inner spacer, new outer spacer and they repaired the circlip because they would not have been able to find a new one.

Took all up about 4 hours and they put NSK bearings back in.

They tell me it should be fine. So we are just about to head out and discuss our plans and maybe we will still go up to Latvia.

Lukas - I will see how the wheel goes over the next 2-3 thousand k's up to Vienna, we will be there on 23/24/25th of August. If it is giving the bearings hell and I go through another one or something, I will buy the wheel off you there. If you sell it before then to someone else, no worries. Either way I would be happy to shout you a beer!

Woody - you have been an absolute legend with your advice and the hookup for Genna! He is one hell of a crazy Russian. A person I won't forget so cheers for the hookup.

Will post up the repair pics a little later.

You can see the rounded part just below the seat of the bearing... that shouldn't be there and is where the flange off the inner sleeve carved out that shape into the hub... luckily the seat wasn't damaged.

And we got the bearing in :)




The guy hammers a circlip back into shape because as he says there is no chance we will be able to find one.

I find the pic interesting due to the amount of balance weight I see stuck on the wheel.
Was the wheel tough to balance? Maybe that could indicate a problem with the construction of the wheel?
Just curious.

Yeah when I got new tyres put on in Spain it took the guy forever to balance the wheel. Prior to that it did not have as many balance weights, maybe half as many.

Maybe Woody could tell us if that is some sort of a sign that things are going wrong?

At least you didn't lose any of the important bits!