Advise for checking wheel bearings

["Mik's Mail" <miktip@surfnet1.net>]

The "best" sure fire method for checking wheel bearings, "thoroughly"
is to remove the wheel, remove the brake disk, and physically rotate and
listen to the bearing  by  turning the hub, by hand.  Its should be "smooth"
and
not loose.   Then do the 3-9 & 6-12 check.  If your really serious about
those
bearings, remove the stub axle from the hub, which will give the best
indication.
But this isn't often necessary as you will be able to determine a bad
bearing before
going this far.

Sure you can grab the wheel at 3-9, 6 &12, but more often than not
the bearing will be "going" bad, and exhibit no signs of looseness.
Plus the brake disk closely clamped by the pads, often hinders a "true"
indication of the bearings condition.

The bearings seem to loose their lubrication, and over heat, or overheat
and cook their lube away!

A few race teams repack their bearings in special synth grease,(Spectro)
which they
claim help the bearings last much longer under racing conditions!

I tried the "synth-bearing-repack" method once, and to date their still
alive and spinning
good!  They've been in for 4 years now, and not just "street" driven.  Mine
were
repacked with Mobil 1 synth grease.

Another good piece of advice on the bearings, is avoid the Brazilian made
ones, as they seem to not survive  as well as the German and Canadian
versions.

                                      Just my .02

                                                                    Mik



                          Mik