Rear wheel bearing, has this been solved?

[JaR3d85]

I don't want to do this and bring it up but I just replaced my rear wheel bearings 4k ago and last night had to replace them again and after a 30 mile ride today when I roll the bike back and forward it clicks multiple times before full wheel revolution either way... I'm really not happy about this being an issue and if anyone knows of a way to fix this I would be so extremely greatful.

 

[atomsplitter]

It may not be the bearings at all. Did you check the spacer tube dimensions before reinstallation? Also, the clicking could be the caliper carrier on the torque reaction bolt if there is any drag on the disk from the pads. The bearings themselves are pretty robust so if they are coming apart after a few thousand (or hundred) miles, something else is causing it, it's not the bearing quality.

 

[JaR3d85]

It may not be the bearings at all. Did you check the spacer tube dimensions before reinstallation? Also, the clicking could be the caliper carrier on the torque reaction bolt if there is any drag on the disk from the pads. The bearings themselves are pretty robust so if they are coming apart after a few thousand (or hundred) miles, something else is causing it, it's not the bearing quality.

I did not measure the spacer, your talking about the 177.97mm right? It did have a little marring and what I would call stamping looks like from a misalignment when bearings were installed like half circle stamps from the bearing being installed with the spacer off a little, it could have been me or previous owner I guess that's not relevant at this point, i did order a new spacer this morning and I was also pricing out a rear wheel replacement... Not my favorite idea because I could just run into the same **** if this isnt even bearing related... The fact that the bearing I just swapped were so tight to each other tells me maybe there is some over compression when torquing to spec? I dunno, It only clicks when the bikes weight is on it and not when it is in the air. Something else I wanted to mention is as I am tightening the axle it makes almost the same click sound as I'm tightening when it starts to get closer to final torque and it also does the same as I break it loose

 

[Kevin frazier]

I have found torqueing to spec will lock spacer to bearings, and ruin bearings. Not sure if its torque, the aluminum spacer, the aluminum bearings seats or what, i just know you can lock them down on install, doesn’t matter if you install stock, or chinese, or ceramic, installer has to make sure that spacer doesn’t get locked down to bearings last cases too tightly. I do not torque to spec on axles and have found this allows bearings to still finger spin when rim removed down the road.

 

[Gerald]

I did not measure the spacer, your talking about the 177.97mm right? It did have a little marring and what I would call stamping looks like from a misalignment when bearings were installed like half circle stamps from the bearing being installed with the spacer off a little, it could have been me or previous owner I guess that's not relevant at this point, i did order a new spacer this morning and I was also pricing out a rear wheel replacement... Not my favorite idea because I could just run into the same **** if this isnt even bearing related... The fact that the bearing I just swapped were so tight to each other tells me maybe there is some over compression when torquing to spec? I dunno, It only clicks when the bikes weight is on it and not when it is in the air. Something else I wanted to mention is as I am tightening the axle it makes almost the same click sound as I'm tightening when it starts to get closer to final torque and it also does the same as I break it loose

I seem to remember Rocket Scientist having a post concerning issues and solutions. You can probably find posts on here.

 

[Gregger]

Let's see if I can remember everything I've done over the years to my rear wheel.

I've had many problems with my rear wheel over the years. My first issue was when the rim split where the circlip retains the wheel brg. This caused the wheel to flex on the axle rubbing the rotor against the caliper giving a scrapping noise. Had to replace the rim. No warranty. The new rim ran for several thousand miles with no issues. On a cross Canada tour, I had the tire replaced in Edmonton by dealer and several hundred miles later, the wheel started clicking. Rode the bike back across Canada like this until I got home. While removing the axle nut, I heard a loud clicking/ratching noise like something flexed into position inside the wheel. When I pulled the rear wheel, I noticed that the center wheel brg was hard to spin until I removed it from the rim, then it felt good??? All 3 brgs felt good??? Everything looked fine. Why the noise??? I replaced the bearings anyway. A couple of months later, the wheel was clicking again so I loosened the axle nut. This got rid of the clicking but I got that flexing noise again for a moment while loosening the axle nut. When I put things back together, instead of torquing the axle to 81 ft/lbs, I loosened it to around 25 ft/lbs and things were good for a time until I replaced the tire. I noticed another problem. The inner wheel brg on the rim was no longer a press fit but very loose in the bore. It appears the outer bearing race was spinning in the brg bore in the rim. I replaced the brgs again installing with Loctite 638 (retaining compound for loose fits) on the loose fitting brg. I figured that in my effort to get rid of the clicking noise by undertorquing the axle nut I inadvertantly caused the brg outer race to spin in the rim bore. Since then, I've torqued the nut to spec (81 ft/lbs). My clicking noise has disappeared for several years now.

Here are some other things I tried while troubleshooting the clicking problem. I wondered if the cush drive rubber was being over crushed, causing that clicking/ratcheting noise. I tried some lubricant. Not sure if this helped because I also tried loosing the axle nut at the same time... Did the lube get rid of the noise or loosing the axle??? I know @Rocket Scientist tried loosening his rear axle and had success with clicking. I don't know if it caused any adverse effects with brg races spining in the rim though. Another item is to make sure you use quality brgs. I think @1olbull posted his failures and successes trying cheap and quality brgs.

Going forward, I still have a rim with a loose fitting brg and I think the Loctite is failing because I'm beginning to get a whine when cornering. I had this whine before and tracked it down to the brg loose in the rim. After the Loctite install (mentioned above), the whine disappeared. That was several thousand kms ago. Knowing I'm going to have to eventually sleeve the brg bore in the rim, I found a practically new rear rim with ABS mount for my bike complete with hub, cush drive and brgs for $100. I also have some new Nachi bearings for this rim. It'll get swapped out when the tire needs replacing or when the whine gets too annoying.

Sorry for the long post but there is a plethora of data on clicking wheels under the search function.

 

[JaR3d85]

I seem to remember Rocket Scientist having a post concerning issues and solutions. You can probably find posts on h

Let's see if I can remember everything I've done over the years to my rear wheel.

I've had many problems with my rear wheel over the years. My first issue was when the rim split where the circlip retains the wheel brg. This caused the wheel to flex on the axle rubbing the rotor against the caliper giving a scrapping noise. Had to replace the rim. No warranty. The new rim ran for several thousand miles with no issues. On a cross Canada tour, I had the tire replaced in Edmonton by dealer and several hundred miles later, the wheel started clicking. Rode the bike back across Canada like this until I got home. While removing the axle nut, I heard a loud clicking/ratching noise like something flexed into position inside the wheel. When I pulled the rear wheel, I noticed that the center wheel brg was hard to spin until I removed it from the rim, then it felt good??? All 3 brgs felt good??? Everything looked fine. Why the noise??? I replaced the bearings anyway. A couple of months later, the wheel was clicking again so I loosened the axle nut. This got rid of the clicking but I got that flexing noise again for a moment while loosening the axle nut. When I put things back together, instead of torquing the axle to 81 ft/lbs, I loosened it to around 25 ft/lbs and things were good for a time until I replaced the tire. I noticed another problem. The inner wheel brg on the rim was no longer a press fit but very loose in the bore. It appears the outer bearing race was spinning in the brg bore in the rim. I replaced the brgs again installing with Loctite 638 (retaining compound for loose fits) on the loose fitting brg. I figured that in my effort to get rid of the clicking noise by undertorquing the axle nut I inadvertantly caused the brg outer race to spin in the rim bore. Since then, I've torqued the nut to spec (81 ft/lbs). My clicking noise has disappeared for several years now.

Here are some other things I tried while troubleshooting the clicking problem. I wondered if the cush drive rubber was being over crushed, causing that clicking/ratcheting noise. I tried some lubricant. Not sure if this helped because I also tried loosing the axle nut at the same time... Did the lube get rid of the noise or loosing the axle??? I know @Rocket Scientist tried loosening his rear axle and had success with clicking. I don't know if it caused any adverse effects with brg races spining in the rim though. Another item is to make sure you use quality brgs. I think @1olbull posted his failures and successes trying cheap and quality brgs.

Going forward, I still have a rim with a loose fitting brg and I think the Loctite is failing because I'm beginning to get a whine when cornering. I had this whine before and tracked it down to the brg loose in the rim. After the Loctite install (mentioned above), the whine disappeared. That was several thousand kms ago. Knowing I'm going to have to eventually sleeve the brg bore in the rim, I found a practically new rear rim with ABS mount for my bike complete with hub, cush drive and brgs for $100. I also have some new Nachi bearings for this rim. It'll get swapped out when the tire needs replacing or when the whine gets too annoying.

Sorry for the long post but there is a plethora of data on clicking wheels under the search function.

I greatly appreciate the long post! This thing is driving me insane, i have read through a ton of posts on here in regards to the rear wheel bearings any and all information I can get and compile would greatly up my chances to hopefully figure out the root cause of this happening...

 

[Idaho Red Rocket 3]

I only torque my back axle to 95 nm.

 

[Gregger]

Here is some more speculation on the rear wheel topic. Again, it's only an opinion based on what I've experienced. I've included a parts breakdown to help.

If you consider how the rear hub is made in the old gen Rocket, we have the final drive complete with 3 brgs (#18, 7, 3), 2 spacers (one stepped/sliding #20 and one fixed #2), a flange drive plate A (#10) that the stepped spacer(#20) goes into, the cush drive rubber and flange plate B (#9 & 17) and aluminum rim. Note the brg (#18) in flange A (#10) along with the stepped sliding spacer (#20). This attaches in sequence to the rim which has two brgs separated by the fixed aluminum spacer of a certain length. When you torque everything together, the spacer in the rim, keeps the 2 brgs separated (not moving) while the stepped spacer in the flange A slides into the brg/flange till it stops. Hypothetically speaking, you can tighten the axle nut to any spec and the 2 brgs in the rim won't move because of the spacer. The rest of the hub assembly will move through the stepped spacer which allows compression to take place (to a point) of the cush drive rubber before seating. If you under torque the axle nut, the sliding/stepped spacer opens up relaxing clamping force on the cush and (I'm guessing here guys??) getting rid of the noise at times.

I've often wondered if the sliding/stepped spacer in the cush drive part of the hub allows too much compression of the cush drive rubber. This could cause a noise especially if the cush drive is dry, rubbing against the aluminum hub/flange??? Reducing the torque on the axle nut would seem to help stop this noise in a number of cases, but in my case cause a brg race to spin in it's bore...

 

[JaR3d85]

I was thinking something along those lines with there being a possible shift over time causing these to fail over time? I wonder if there is a correlation between specific years? My roadster is a 2014, like maybe a factor tolerance was changed or revised? I dunno, I also said screw is and ordered a different rear wheel... Its off a 2012 roadster with 30k... I'm gonna swap my tire over when it arrives and see what happens... I was even considering trying to order a new rear axle ? Or maybe I will bring mine to work and put it on my lathe and check to make sure it's still running true? I am just baffled that something like this is so common yet so hard to diagnose...