After reading Dave B's Romania trip report in the February Star, a question about the life of rear wheel bearings on the plunger A10s.
My rear wheel bearings fail about every 2000 miles, but after being recovered from the M67 I now keep a close check on them and replace early. I use the sealed ones available from various ebay sellers, but also C&D Autos (who told me "no problem with them").
Does anyone else have this problem - and is there a solution?
There is a guy in our branch who rides a plunger A10 and does only the minimum needed to keep it legal. He says his bike has done over 200,000 miles. I have done work on it and I can believe it. There is no play in the wheel bearings which look like originals. I have used Ebay wheel bearings and they are mostly Chinese rubbish and as you say do not last. Try a bearing stockist as I did. No more problems since, you'll pay more but get quality.
Hi Ted,
I was saving the big reveal for later but as you have asked here is the almost certain answer.
It was quite simple in case of Chris's A10. I fitted new bearings before an earlier trip and thought job done for another 50k miles. However, as I have written we had a couple of bearing failures and it was the right hand bearing that failed.
In the normal course of owning a BSA wheel bearings are something that does not gets done on a regular basis so I have forgiven myself for my lack of observation, attention to detail and knowledge.
In the end I found another hub that a shed goblin had hidden out of sight and decided to knock the bearings out. On knocking the righthand bearing out guess what came out as well???!!!!. Some of you will have instantly said the spacer ring that goes in first.
I suspect that when originally fitting new bearings this ring came out and rolled under the bench and in to the realms of the shed goblin.
So the ring out of the donor hub was fitted along with a new bearing and no problems since.
Inside the hub the centre race is held by the tube spacer and is clamped up when the wheel spindle is tightened. The outer race depends on the spacer ring and the retainer to keep it in place.
No inner spacer ring means that the outer race is not held firmly and will allow movement and indeed by tightening the bearing retainer against the outer race probably starts the demise of the bearing by pushing it sideways. Once the bearing gets a bit sloppy the balls get a bit wayward and before you know it the cage is trashed and the back wheel starts to compete with the front one for steering rights.
I hope this helps and I hope that you enjoyed the rest of the trip report in the Star
Dave.
And the spacer on the plunger is different to the swinging arm one.
Hi,
Yes, the plunger spacer fits between the bearings in the hub and can float about a bit until tightened up by the prindle whereas the swinging arm one I think fits flush through the bearing.
I am not sure about the spacer ring but the one I used was from a WDB40 hub (it is still Army green) but it solved the problem.
Dave.
Thanks everyone!
I have dismantled the hub with findings as follows. I have a swinging arm hub with no spindle sleeve fitted (67-6027) - because the plunger spindle is the same diameter as the inner race so wouldn't go through the sleeve. The rh bearing is therefore lacking in support.
So my plan is to fit a plunger sleeve (67-6061) which may need its length altering somewhat. The wheel lines up OK, and apart from the bearing life it has been OK.
Just a note Dave - the parts diagram doesn't show a spacer under the rh bearing - is the one you found on the spare hub something a previous owner put there?
Hi Ted,
Yes, I see no hub bearing thrust washer under the righthand bearing in the parts book but there is one under the lefthand bearing - 65-5883. Perhaps it was in the wrong side but that would have pushed the hub across to jam against the spines??All the similar QD hubs have one with the number changing to 65-5884 for later models.
The spare hub is in fact and ex WDB40 one that I found in a scrap yard along with some other parts.
It did not look like it had been apart but perhaps had and been wrongly re assembled hence why it was in the scrap.
Anyway, I removed this spacer/washer put in the plunger hub under the righthand bearing and the problem was solved. I assumed as the problem was solved that this part was missing but next time I have the bearings out I will check to see what is actually in there.
Before 'losing' this spacer the wheel was fine and it was just a very slight amount of bearing wear that prompted me to fit new bearings.
One other thing that convinced me that it was correct was that with the bearing pressed in against the spacer ring the inner spacer tube was just about held in place but not tight.
Confusing.
Dave.