Before I commit to changing the rear bearing holder, can I just tie up a couple of loose ends?

When there's no load on the rear axle bolt , ie you've taken the wheel off, is it normal for the threaded end to have a reasonable amount of float on it? Mine moves several mm in any given direction. One bike shop once told me it was an issue, but I figured that as the bolt was only something to tighten the wheel bolt against, that the actual locating is done by the wheel seating against the pins on the hub?

Secondly.... do I really need to replace the large stake nut on the hub even though the manual says so? It looks like it's been re-staked before, and from memory that was the same place who told me about the axle bolt. And that was over a decade ago!

Its normal, and ive reused the hub nut many times without problems.

One further question.... do the bearings need any preparation before I stick everything back in place? It's an absolutely brand new, still sealed in the bag rear hub that I'm using, so just a plug and play job for that. But do I need to stuff a ton of grease inside the thing before it goes on, or is everything lubed well enough when they stick the things together?

speedy231278 wrote:One further question.... do the bearings need any preparation before I stick everything back in place? It's an absolutely brand new, still sealed in the bag rear hub that I'm using, so just a plug and play job for that. But do I need to stuff a ton of grease inside the thing before it goes on, or is everything lubed well enough when they stick the things together?

service maunal is in the download section, it tells you all the parts that need grease.

Even if its new id check against the book to see where grease is require and apply as necessary.

I did look at that after posted the question. It says to grease the needle bearing. I just wondered if anyone knew from experience if anything else could do with plastering. I would presume not, but you never know!

speedy231278 wrote:I did look at that after posted the question. It says to grease the needle bearing. I just wondered if anyone knew from experience if anything else could do with plastering. I would presume not, but you never know!

If it moves against something else, grease it.

And use high melting point grease.

Honda book says NLG #2 or equivalent. Happily, the stuff I have says exactly that on the tub.

Everything came apart easily, which after horror stories of seized sprocket carriers was very pleasing. The person who last had it apart had clearly taken care with it. All the moving parts had been greased thoroughly, and the splines on both the end of the axle and the axle bolt had been copper greased to help their removal. I spent several hours cleaning absolutely everything with various cleaners and a toothbrush before reassembling. There was no obvious play in the swingarm, although I appreciate that the leverage you can apply to it is miminal when compared to heaving on the wheel....

I do have a minor concern that maybe the bearings were not the issue, or at least not all of it. I can still feel a tiny bit of movement if I grab the rear tyre with the wheel in just the right/wrong place depending on how you look at it. I don't feel it if I just grab the spokes. Am I detecting a bit of flex in the tyre, or could something else have a bit of wear? The axle was polished but not scored and didn't show any signs of wear. The wheel pins look fine, and there's no sign of wear on the back of the wheel either. Or am I just being paranoid? There is definitely much less play than there was (which wasn't much), but you can still feel an ever so slight bit of movement nonetheless - but only when the wheel is in a specific part of the rotation, not all the way round....

Maybe a bit of a daft question but as you say someone has been at it before is the spacer that sits between the sprocket carrier and the bearing present Only asking as I've made this error before and had play with everything correctly torqued?

Yes, there was a chunky spacer/washer that sits between the rear of the sprocket carrier and the nearest bearing race.