jarredtaylor

Member
Jan 6, 2000
38
0
My 93 KX250 eats wheel bearings. Its ridiculous. Every 3 rides I am replacing them. The dustcaps are good, I packed them with good grease etc. Its the old setup with 1 bearing on each side. Any ideas as to why they are failing so frequently? I am using OEM bearings.

Any ideas on what else it could be? What are my options for other bearings?

JT
 

wanrep

Sponsoring Member
Aug 21, 2001
39
0
Try this, next bearing change:

Get some good (not Chinese) 6004 bearings from your local bearing house.
Specify "rubber shielded". Pop one of the shields off and pack it with grease and replace shield.
Make sure you tap around the outside of the bearing when installing.

Get new seals and dust caps.

Make sure you have 2 - 2.5 inches of chain slack.

Don't aim the power washer at the point where the wheel and axle meet.

Hope this helps.
 

MoToMaNYz125

Member
Apr 2, 2001
66
0
haha well this is funny, my old wheel bearings on my 95 rm80 shattered and my 99 yz80 rear wheel bearings were shot too, my dad works at an auto electric shop and the stock wheel bearings arent even double sheilded like my dad got me, so what i did was pack the wheel with his bearings and slapped some grease on the seals ancd they work good no dirt or water gets in them, and I NEVER POWERWASH MY BIKE ALWAYSE USE SIMPLE GREEN,SCRUBRUSH AND A HOSE, a pressure washer can mess up important seals and bearings on your bike and over tightening the chain, and non-proper wheel alighnment(rear) will casuse rear wheel bearings to get shot
 

BRush

LIFETIME SPONSOR
Jun 5, 2000
1,100
0
At the risk of over-generalizing, most recreational dirt bike wheel bearings failures stem from water contamination, so easy on the power washer. Kawi OEM bearings that are only sealed on one side just don't last if you ride in wet conditions. Also, if your bearings are good, but your seals are crap (I'm talking about the outer rubber ones, not the seals built into the bearings) then the new bearings are not going to last long.

I was having problems with bearing failures until I went with a better quality double-sealed bearing. I'd seen the CBR website and was intrigued by the idea of a set of bearings that were pre-packed with good quality waterproof grease and came with a lifetime warranty. At $38 a set, they seemed pricey until a few other facts came to light:

1. The prices on the website have been lowered, the set was only $33 ( http://gate.tfb.com/~cbr/ ).
2. They came with new seals too ( believe the KDX uses the same one as yours).
3. My dealer was charging me $13 per bearing and $8 per seal. Total: $42

The guys out there are very friendly and answered all my questions.The bearings arrived in three days and were well packaged and individually sealed. The bearings were good quality NTN bearing. The new outer seals were a spring seal type and a much better design than the OEM KDX ones. The instructions were clear. All in all , I'm very pleased with my experience with CBR. Service was good. Quality seems high, (time will tell, eh?) and they are willing to back up their product with "lifetime" (to original purchaser) warranty.
 

Layton

~SPONSOR~
Aug 2, 2000
898
0
Did you check the spacer between the bearings? If it is missing or mushroomed there will be an excessive side load on the bearings.
 
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