wheel bearings

[Guest]

Any tips on wheel bearing and seal replacement, front and rear on my 81 GS 850G? The shop manual looks pretty straight forward. New bearings come with double sided seals so no hand packing is necessary. Thanks, tommyturbo2

[SVSooke]

Bearings in the deep freezer (if you have one) and warm the wheels if you can.Works a treat.

[azr]

Just make sure you don't put your bearings in so tight the inner spacer doesn't spin. I use a PVC pipe the same diameter as the bearing and it works perfectly to put them in. I like using my bearing puller but a drift can work as well. If you have a local bearing shop they'll have the wheel bearings at a 1/3 of the cost.

[850 Combat]

I beleive that most Suzuki wheel bearing part numbers translate to a standard bearing size. I remember that from when my brother hit a rock and broke a front wheel on my GS850 Between Enterprise Oregon, and Clarkston Washington.

Here is the Partshark site for a 1000G front wheel:

http://www.partshark.com/fiche_section_detail.asp?section=95708&category=Motorcycles&make=SUZUKI&year=1980&fveh=2151

[JEEPRUSTY]

Yes indeed x ref your bearings at a bearing dedicated shop.
You will save a small fortune for doing so. No Chinese bearings though TRW and the other big boys are the way to go.

I have done the wheel bearing change out twice and I freeze the bearings I then warm up the wheel and they pop in easily.

[Grimly]

I worked for a company that made the balls for several bearing companies. The ones with the most exacting requirements went to Koyo.
Just sayin', like.
As it happens, long before that, I'd been using Koyo wheel bearings on all my wheels and never had one fail - unlike some of the other makes.

[rops84]

i think that Koyo was originally installed in all suzukis.
got them for both wheels and rear sprocket for my gs 550 for around 30 $ at local bearing dealer.
found the right ones here:

http://www.bikebearingshop.co.uk/C14.htm

if you have to apply force when installing them take care and use tool to apply force on the outer ring of the bearing, the one that touches the rim. You wouldnt want to break them before you install them ;-)
grease between bearings and on the front wheel take care when installing the speedometer box to place it right way on.

[kparkfan]

I froze my new bearings for 24 hours. When we went to put the new bearings in we used a small torch to heat up the spot where the new ones were going in and they just dropped right in. There is a bearing removal tool being sold on Ebay for around $45. worked wonders on getting the bearings out.