Nicely done Brooks - what a rigamorole. I must say though: I was very impressed by the calm in your shop when you realized that you had forgotten the inner sleeve and plastic bushing assembly. Obviously, there is no point in losing ones temper, but it is a natural reaction to an annoying error like that.
Brook, I just finished powder coating my wheels and am ready to install bearings and set bearing preload. I'm curious...why couldn't a press be used to install wheel bearing outer races thus avoiding heat gun use and possible melting of plastic sleeve on the inner pipe ? Jim H.
Jim, you can install the outer races without heating the hub if you wish. When I use a heat gun, the hub doesn't get hot enough to melt the plastic sleeves. Most folks don't have an hydraulic press, so I showed what a hobbyist could use to do the job.
Hey Brook, Im still a beginner at servicing airhead. I have a 83 r80rt I’m working on. Stupid enough I did not watch this video or did any research before pulling the races before getting my wheels powder coated. So I did not did measured any distances of how far the races needs to go in and which side my sleeves came off. What’s your suggestion for me at this point? Thank you for help! I’m a big fan of looking at your video before working on my bike now :)
Hi Chau, There is a link in the introduction to the video that takes you to complete documentation about how I do this work. Your question should be answered as to what goes where.
great vids Brooks, can you please explain how did you unscrew the bolts of disk break a the back wheel because they have some kind of lock on them !! thank you
Hi Johan, The bolts are secured with metal tabs that were folded up across the bolt sides. Use a screw driver to bent them flat then remove the bolts. You should replace those strips with the tabs. Here is the video of that operation. --> th-cam.com/video/4LqXe2n8DjU/w-d-xo.html And the writeup with all the details: brook.reams.me/bmw-motorcycle-rebuilds/1983-bmw-r100rs-rebuild-project-index/34-bmw-1983-r100rs-remove-refinish-install-disk-brake-rotors/
Hi Brook, thank you for this excellent video! I'm al little confused about the direction of the top hats. On my bike I found them just as you did „backwards“ and I've never seen them installed the way you installed them, although it of course makes sense. I only ask myself: will you be able to release the dust caps for the next service, when you cynt't just take off the top hats? Is it very sure they have to be installed from inside out?
Hi Studio Hesterbrink, I use a screwdriver to pop the top hat out of the dust seal and then use the screwdriver to pry the dust seal out. I find heating the outside of the wheel hub around the seal with a heat gun expands the aluminum a bit and makes it easier to pry the seal out.
@@BrooksAirheadGarage Hi Brook, thank you again for the quick answer and for continuing your extremely helpful tutorials! Kind of funny that here in Germany we have to rely on videos made in America to keep our German-built bikes alive... Greetings, Ulrich
@@Hesterbrink Ulrich, sometimes excellence is appreciated more outside the country of origin. In music in the 1950's and 60's, African-American blues had a large influence and was appreciated in England and only later grew it's audience in it's country of origin via the "British Invasion". In the end, the excellence is appreciated and supported back in the place it started. :-)
Hi Brook, I hope all is ok. I am a bit confused, as in the formula that you show in the earlier part of the video, you use 20-30 inch-ounces, which is about 0.104-0.0156 ft-lb a very low torque, as you said. However, when you show the way method you actually use 25 ft-lb to measure the resistance. So, if I use 25 ft-lb and use the formula showed, I should read 15,119,733gr in the scale.... What is that I am not getting? Any help will be appreciated.
Francesco, the 20-30 INCH-Lbs is the torque needed to spin the wheel. So it's a measure of the bearing pre-load. The 25 FT-Lbs is the torque of the axle nut compressing the bearings on the axle. You set the axle nut torque (25 FT-Lbs) then you measure the torque needed to spin the wheel (20-30 INCH-Lbs). The tightness of the axle nut affects torque required to spin the wheel, so you have to torque the axle nut to the proper torque before you measure the torque required to spin the wheel. I hope this helps.
Nelson, any BMW motorcycle dealer can provide them for you and also Euro MotoElectrics has them (www.euromotoelectrics.com). The BMW part#'s are 36 31 2 310 973 and 36 31 8 534 835.
Brook, I wanted to ask if you have tried this math when finding the correct new shim/wedding band width during wheel bearing preload. It occurred to me that I should be able to take measurements to find the difference between the width of the new and old of the bearing inner races. That width, with the width of the old wedding band should tell me what width new wedding band to buy. Does this logic work or does it fall apart when actually doing wheel bearing preload? My front wheel measurements: Difference between old and new bearing inner race = 0.0048” (new bearing is narrower) 2 wheel bearings so 2 x 0.0048 = 0.0096” = 0.244 mm Old wedding band = 0.2822” = 7.168 mm New wedding band/shim width = 7.168mm + 0.244mm = 7.412mm I realize that I'm making an assumption that preload was set properly on the old set of bearing but does this math get a guy close?
JIm, I suppose you could go that route. That said, I am comfortable with doing the measurement of the torque and adjusting as required. When I do that, I know for sure that the pre-load is correct.
@@BrooksAirheadGarage Oh, I still plan on using your method with the scale. I am just concerned that torqueing with too large of a wedding band/shim width might damage the bearing...trying to get the clearance close before I torque and do final adjustments to wedding band/shim width. Is that a valid concern?
@@jimhovland7672 The torque is so low that I don't think you will damage the bearing if you have too small a shim. When you torque the axle nut, set your torque wrench to 15 Ft-lbs and then spin the wheel, If you feel a lot of resistance, the wedding band+shims are too thin. The final torque is 25 Ft-lbs. So checking it at a lower value lets you know if you are in the ball park with your wedding band and shims.
Thanks Brook! Are you going to do this for the front wheel too? I know you've done this on your website. Tip: don't 'reverse' the front wheel during a tyre change and then fail to reverse the axle spindle; yes, I need to reinstall the bearings...
I dont understand any advantage of having the top hat with BRIM INSIDE the seal. I can imagine a tiny advantage of BRIM OUTSIDE ( the brim acting as a wee bit of shield from direct water spray / grime at the critical point (the lip) of seal. Also the top hat brim inside is rather easily pulled out through seal, it will l "'go back in " with a little umph too, but thats not any good for the seal lip. I install top hats - brim outside - just so I could clean them Futher , on the rear wheel, a possible advantage of BRIM OUTSIDE is to not damage the seal needlessly in case the top hat on the final drive side is changed (this being the top hat which adjusts wheel offset away from swing arm to permit a wider rear tire... ). Re the wedding ring side; that spacer tube acts symmetrically, facing 180 either way doesnt affect anything. Its just just a norm to put wedding ring on ( heck I cant remember which) side. I find some plastic spool on spacer sometimes NOT overhanging to hold the wedding ring a bit more steady while installing the wheel. tap the plastic spool to overhang the metal tube when removed
a a, the brim pushes on the inner races ensuring bearing preload is maintained. The seal is a dust seal, not an oil seal, so the lip is not critical to sealing as it is for the crankshaft seals. The brim being behind the seal ensures when you remove the wheel you don't loose the top hat.
aluminum race drivers are so cheap now ( the type with a stepped face that fits inside the race to help centering & allow some power into the hammer. PS ; keep the flat side of driver flat and smooth for driving seals) that it hurts my ears to use an old race as driver; the old race is just hard as the new race and more possible to nick/chip the new race than the hammer ! Also more difficult to hold a new race square with just the slippery old race as "cushion" . With the handle on a driver, new race is less prone to cocking. Heated hubs only help if you can work fast enough that the chilled race stays cold . Thats another reason to use the aluminum driver - its fast & more accurate) . If you heat the hub hot enough , the race may just fall in postion ( this works better ie MUST DO on the original design - aluminum bore with steel race... the later steel hub liner expands a lot less when heated, so the heated wheel is less benefit. You could heat a bare wheel til water dances on it ; not sure about those beautiful coated wheels There are shelves / lips inside the hub bore; drive those races down till they ring, If the races are various distances apart, then any preset of preload is not accurate. Pretty cool that you were able to " ship in the bottle" rebuild the internal spacer after the races were installed. Its also possible to sand / shave a some of the plastic rim evenly off the spool , reduce diameter , which will allow the whole assembly through the race. You'll still get some centering (which is the only thing the plastic spool does ) at worst maybe have to do a little hide & seek when inserting the axle.
Nicely done Brooks - what a rigamorole. I must say though: I was very impressed by the calm in your shop when you realized that you had forgotten the inner sleeve and plastic bushing assembly. Obviously, there is no point in losing ones temper, but it is a natural reaction to an annoying error like that.
Brook, it’s another great episode. You explain everything so beautifully and with great detail. Fantastic job.
You're welcome Buelent.
That was a superb demonstration, Brook. Thank you 👍
You're welcome Keith
Thank you Brook! Just used your tutorial for my front wheel, including the Cycle Works tool. All perfect.
Hi Francesco, Cool beans. I'm pleased this helped you complete your project successfully. Here's to riding a lot more miles on your airhead this year.
pro tip : you can watch series at InstaFlixxer. Been using it for watching a lot of movies lately.
@David Finley Yea, been using instaflixxer for since november myself =)
Brilliant Tutorial once again Brook.
White wheels?! Oh dear, what a bear to keep clean! Excellent video, as always!
Thanks Barron. BTW, I'm retired, so what else do I have to do but keep my wheels clean? :-)
@@BrooksAirheadGarage I've got spoke wheels on my BMW and just cleaning the rim, around the spokes, is such a chore! Oh, and I pinged you on LinkedIn!
Brook, I just finished powder coating my wheels and am ready to install bearings and set bearing preload. I'm curious...why couldn't a press be used to install wheel bearing outer races thus avoiding heat gun use and possible melting of plastic sleeve on the inner pipe ? Jim H.
Jim, you can install the outer races without heating the hub if you wish. When I use a heat gun, the hub doesn't get hot enough to melt the plastic sleeves. Most folks don't have an hydraulic press, so I showed what a hobbyist could use to do the job.
@@BrooksAirheadGarage Thank you for the clarification!
Hey Brook, Im still a beginner at servicing airhead. I have a 83 r80rt I’m working on. Stupid enough I did not watch this video or did any research before pulling the races before getting my wheels powder coated. So I did not did measured any distances of how far the races needs to go in and which side my sleeves came off. What’s your suggestion for me at this point? Thank you for help! I’m a big fan of looking at your video before working on my bike now :)
Hi Chau, There is a link in the introduction to the video that takes you to complete documentation about how I do this work. Your question should be answered as to what goes where.
great vids Brooks, can you please explain how did you unscrew the bolts of disk break a the back wheel because they have some kind of lock on them !! thank you
Hi Johan, The bolts are secured with metal tabs that were folded up across the bolt sides. Use a screw driver to bent them flat then remove the bolts. You should replace those strips with the tabs. Here is the video of that operation.
--> th-cam.com/video/4LqXe2n8DjU/w-d-xo.html
And the writeup with all the details:
brook.reams.me/bmw-motorcycle-rebuilds/1983-bmw-r100rs-rebuild-project-index/34-bmw-1983-r100rs-remove-refinish-install-disk-brake-rotors/
Hi Brook,
thank you for this excellent video! I'm al little confused about the direction of the top hats.
On my bike I found them just as you did „backwards“ and I've never seen them installed the way you installed them, although it of course makes sense. I only ask myself: will you be able to release the dust caps for the next service, when you cynt't just take off the top hats? Is it very sure they have to be installed from inside out?
Hi Studio Hesterbrink, I use a screwdriver to pop the top hat out of the dust seal and then use the screwdriver to pry the dust seal out. I find heating the outside of the wheel hub around the seal with a heat gun expands the aluminum a bit and makes it easier to pry the seal out.
@@BrooksAirheadGarage Hi Brook, thank you again for the quick answer and for continuing your extremely helpful tutorials!
Kind of funny that here in Germany we have to rely on videos made in America to keep our German-built bikes alive...
Greetings, Ulrich
@@Hesterbrink Ulrich, sometimes excellence is appreciated more outside the country of origin. In music in the 1950's and 60's, African-American blues had a large influence and was appreciated in England and only later grew it's audience in it's country of origin via the "British Invasion". In the end, the excellence is appreciated and supported back in the place it started. :-)
one thing im confused about. why wouldnt you put the shims in before the wedding band? seems like it would work better.
Hi dsrudell, I find it easier to adjust the shims if they are facing me and I don't have to remove the wedding band.
Hi Brook, I hope all is ok.
I am a bit confused, as in the formula that you show in the earlier part of the video, you use 20-30 inch-ounces, which is about 0.104-0.0156 ft-lb a very low torque, as you said.
However, when you show the way method you actually use 25 ft-lb to measure the resistance.
So, if I use 25 ft-lb and use the formula showed, I should read 15,119,733gr in the scale....
What is that I am not getting?
Any help will be appreciated.
Francesco, the 20-30 INCH-Lbs is the torque needed to spin the wheel. So it's a measure of the bearing pre-load. The 25 FT-Lbs is the torque of the axle nut compressing the bearings on the axle. You set the axle nut torque (25 FT-Lbs) then you measure the torque needed to spin the wheel (20-30 INCH-Lbs). The tightness of the axle nut affects torque required to spin the wheel, so you have to torque the axle nut to the proper torque before you measure the torque required to spin the wheel. I hope this helps.
@@BrooksAirheadGarage ok got it...it is clear now. Thanks
Please can I get BMW r1100s rear bearings, am really in need of it urgently
Nelson, any BMW motorcycle dealer can provide them for you and also Euro MotoElectrics has them (www.euromotoelectrics.com). The BMW part#'s are 36 31 2 310 973 and 36 31 8 534 835.
Brook,
I wanted to ask if you have tried this math when finding the correct new shim/wedding band width during wheel bearing preload.
It occurred to me that I should be able to take measurements to find the difference between the width of the new and old of the bearing inner races.
That width, with the width of the old wedding band should tell me what width new wedding band to buy.
Does this logic work or does it fall apart when actually doing wheel bearing preload?
My front wheel measurements:
Difference between old and new bearing inner race = 0.0048” (new bearing is narrower)
2 wheel bearings so 2 x 0.0048 = 0.0096” = 0.244 mm
Old wedding band = 0.2822” = 7.168 mm
New wedding band/shim width = 7.168mm + 0.244mm = 7.412mm
I realize that I'm making an assumption that preload was set properly on the old set of bearing but does this math get a guy close?
JIm, I suppose you could go that route. That said, I am comfortable with doing the measurement of the torque and adjusting as required. When I do that, I know for sure that the pre-load is correct.
@@BrooksAirheadGarage Oh, I still plan on using your method with the scale. I am just concerned that torqueing with too large of a wedding band/shim width might damage the bearing...trying to get the clearance close before I torque and do final adjustments to wedding band/shim width. Is that a valid concern?
@@jimhovland7672 The torque is so low that I don't think you will damage the bearing if you have too small a shim. When you torque the axle nut, set your torque wrench to 15 Ft-lbs and then spin the wheel, If you feel a lot of resistance, the wedding band+shims are too thin. The final torque is 25 Ft-lbs. So checking it at a lower value lets you know if you are in the ball park with your wedding band and shims.
Thanks Brook! Are you going to do this for the front wheel too? I know you've done this on your website. Tip: don't 'reverse' the front wheel during a tyre change and then fail to reverse the axle spindle; yes, I need to reinstall the bearings...
Hi Kaleuclint, Both the video and the documentation in the link under the video include the work on both the front and rear wheels.
Good job.as all ways.
Thank you Gerald.
I dont understand any advantage of having the top hat with BRIM INSIDE the seal.
I can imagine a tiny advantage of BRIM OUTSIDE ( the brim acting as a wee bit of shield from direct water spray / grime at the critical point (the lip) of seal. Also the top hat brim inside is rather easily pulled out through seal, it will l "'go back in " with a little umph too, but thats not any good for the seal lip. I install top hats - brim outside - just so I could clean them
Futher , on the rear wheel, a possible advantage of BRIM OUTSIDE is to not damage the seal needlessly in case the top hat on the final drive side is changed (this being the top hat which adjusts wheel offset away from swing arm to permit a wider rear tire... ).
Re the wedding ring side; that spacer tube acts symmetrically, facing 180 either way doesnt affect anything. Its just just a norm to put wedding ring on ( heck I cant remember which) side.
I find some plastic spool on spacer sometimes NOT overhanging to hold the wedding ring a bit more steady while installing the wheel.
tap the plastic spool to overhang the metal tube when removed
a a, the brim pushes on the inner races ensuring bearing preload is maintained. The seal is a dust seal, not an oil seal, so the lip is not critical to sealing as it is for the crankshaft seals. The brim being behind the seal ensures when you remove the wheel you don't loose the top hat.
Melted the plastic spacers with my heat gun maybe forgetting to put it in is a better idea
aluminum race drivers are so cheap now ( the type with a stepped face that fits inside the race to help centering & allow some power into the hammer. PS ; keep the flat side of driver flat and smooth for driving seals) that it hurts my ears to use an old race as driver; the old race is just hard as the new race and more possible to nick/chip the new race than the hammer ! Also more difficult to hold a new race square with just the slippery old race as "cushion" . With the handle on a driver, new race is less prone to cocking.
Heated hubs only help if you can work fast enough that the chilled race stays cold . Thats another reason to use the aluminum driver - its fast & more accurate) . If you heat the hub hot enough , the race may just fall in postion ( this works better ie MUST DO on the original design - aluminum bore with steel race... the later steel hub liner expands a lot less when heated, so the heated wheel is less benefit. You could heat a bare wheel til water dances on it ; not sure about those beautiful coated wheels
There are shelves / lips inside the hub bore; drive those races down till they ring, If the races are various distances apart, then any preset of preload is not accurate.
Pretty cool that you were able to " ship in the bottle" rebuild the internal spacer after the races were installed.
Its also possible to sand / shave a some of the plastic rim evenly off the spool , reduce diameter , which will allow the whole assembly through the race. You'll still get some centering (which is the only thing the plastic spool does ) at worst maybe have to do a little hide & seek when inserting the axle.