Just hit 70,000 miles, and soliciting maintenance opinions

[RCinNC]

I was very surprised when the non-drive side rear bearing on my S10 started to go at 61,000 miles, especially when the bike's never made a water crossing and I don't wash it with high pressure. I caught it during a tire change; since I go through about three rear tires a year, the bearings do get checked fairly often. There was no noise or anything; just a notchy feeling when I rotated the bearing with my finger. Fortunately, I'd already bought a complete set of replacement bearings to have on hand, though I never thought I'd need to use them that early. When I take any long trips, the bearing set goes with me.

 

[Cycledude]

Carrying a complete set of spare rear wheel bearings Is highly recommended, I learned my lesson the hard way out in Montana, spent nearly a week in a motel waiting for parts.

 

[RCinNC]

Especially now, with the problem of obtaining some parts for Japanese bikes.

 

[jpward]

Short story: $20 bearing blew up.... instead of changing it, it will now be $500-$1000 in parts + all the other expenses and BS "adventure". LOL


Just a fun little side story, a buddy and I (both on Tenere's) took a quick 2000K mile trip to Arkansas for a few days. First off road day he starts to hear "crunching" from the rear brake. We are talking on the intercom and tell him its probably a rock caught in the caliper, lets stop on level ground. No rock, but I start to see some evidence of "something is not right". (my brain goes into overdrive) We are probably 15-20 miles from a paved road and out in the sticks. Long story short- it gets worst and worst. My brain is telling me I know what it probably is but there is nothing we can do this second. We keep the speed really slow and make it to the paved road. Across the street is a SMALL restaurant. We are so far out in the stick non of our phones work, but one cell phone from the restaurant owner works... We give him $10 and bum his phone. LOL

We start stripping down the rear end of the bike, the rear wheel bearing has blown up. SUPER blown up. Just as I pulled the wheel out of the swing arm the 'square' bearings fell out on the gravel parking lot. The outer wear 'core' of the outer race was wadded up and peeled off the hard outer race. (I dont think I've ever seen anything like that before) and the inner race had chunks broken off of it. At some point the bearing seized and broke the ABS sensor tab off the ABS disc and spun the disc around. The ripped off the ABS sensor and tore the hell out of that ABS disc and the inside of the rear hub. So much so we might have to look into replacing the rear hub. And of course the ABS disc. Etc, Etc, Etc

This bike has 115K miles and this is not the first time the bearing has blown up. I replaced the first fried bearing at about 40K and then at about 80K we replaced it out of caution, and now at 115K it blew up again. At 80K we replaced all the wheel bearings. But this rear non-drive bearing has always been the ISSUE.

EVERYONE has there own ideas and thoughts on service, but in THIS case, a $20 bearing would have saved $500-$1000 in parts.

He got his bike towed to the Yamaha shop 2.5 hours away, I road back to where we were staying, that was 2+ hours of dirt roads and super twisty bad ass roads! The tow truck guy was a 'gas' and was driving like a mad man to get him there before they closed, he did. The tow truck service charge was really inexpensive under the circumstances, after he dropped off the bike the tow truck guy gave my buddy a ride back 30 minutes to our starting location. He was totally cool about it! The next morning my buddy gets a ride back into town to Yamaha and they work on his bike for a few hours and get it 'back together' and charged him something like $100... Super awesome! Then we spent the next days having a great time and everything else was uneventful "for the most part" ! LOL As always there is more to the story ! LOL Me accidentally hitting a large rain 'stopper' bump across the road in the middle of a dirt road at about 55Mph off-road. Jumping the Super Tenere like a Super Cross bike 10 feet in the air... That was fun, NOT... no crash... Another story. ..... I cant wait to put my bike up for sale one day, and have the beans to say, "never been off road". LOL

Now that we are both back safe and sound he will be ordering all the parts and I will be re building the rear wheel area.

I did learn something new, when the wheel bearing failed, the hub 'fell down' at some point. It shoved the ABS sensor into the ABS pick up ring. It wiped the ring "off". Its basically only a metal ring now, no more black. After he got the bike back from Yamaha there is no ABS, there is no speedometer and the dash looks like a Christmas tree. And there is no odometer or trip odometer. I know why and understand how Yamaha does things now with that sensor, but I didnt at that moment. But just a FYI for anyone that might damage that rear ABS sensor. Yamaha uses that for several things.


#3 is the bearing that blew up.
#22 is totally screwed and ground into a donut
#6 is basically nothing any longer
#4 looked like it had two bullet holes shot through it
#1 is machined and damaged
#5 needs to be cleaned up
**New rear ABS sensor

Also, the disc fell into the rear caliper carrier. It shaved off quite a bit of aluminum. So much so that im concerned about fracture. We will probably look for a used one to replace the damaged one.

The rear disc is just about ready to be changed again, so that was a given. But when it fell into the carrier it wore some nice gouges into the out side rotor surface. Lovely. LOL

Keep an eye on the wheel bearings. If they are not smooth as silk you might "consider" throwing in a new one. It might save you a ton of cash, safety, frustration !
(Also, the #2 bearing probably was under stress when the other bearing failed. It had some funky loads on it, we will be replacing all the bearings im sure.)

Was all this worth $20 ? LOL

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Sorry to hear about your buddy and the trip, but it sounds like you made the most of it. My rear non-drive wheel bearing failed catastrophically on my '16 ST recently. I have 46,00 miles on it. My bill is $1300 to replace/repair all of the parts you listed. I am surprised to learn of all the bearing failures on the ST.

 

[moto.monk]

My bearings went bad at 50k miles but it let know before hand. It started become more noticeable when my rear would shake at 65+ and my tire had uneven wear on the sides

 

[gunslinger_006]

I bought a set of front and rear wheel bearings today. Screw it. I would rather have em and not need em...

My rears felt great about 1200 miles ago and same for the fronts last year. So far so good.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Garrydymond]

I have 122,000 kms on my bike. A lot of that is 2 up. The only thing that has happened to mine that doesn’t fall under regular maintenance is a slight weep from the final drive. I replaced the seal and noticed that the coupling gear had a groove in it made by the oil seal. I have ordered the coupling gear from the US (I live in Mexico) and am waiting for it to clear customs.

 

[WJBertrand]

I inspected my rear bearings at 77K miles and so far so good. You guys are scaring me though!

 

[RCinNC]

That's the trouble with online forums, WJ...three or four guys report an issue like this, and it starts to seem like a trend. I doubt that bearing failures are as common as they might seem based on this thread.

 

[Garrydymond]

I think I should stop reading this thread. I check wheel bearings every time I take the wheel off but don’t know about this inside bearing in the rear wheel. How do I check that?
This pandemic has given me time to check over things but everything seems fine. I will probably change the fork seals soon but am waiting for parts. I cleaned one of them because it had a slight weep and after 2 goes it seems to have stopped.
I still think of my bike as new.
Best bike I’ve ever owned.

 

[Tenman]

I get the wheels off the ground. Grab my wheel at 12 & 6 o’clock. Correct me if I’m wrong. I’ve never taken a wheel off just to check the bearings unless it had some wiggle.