CustomfibreR/C

Just wondering if anyone else out there has gone to this extent of bearing maintainence.....(see pic below)

I totally dismantled a bearing and rebuilt it and even with one of the balls missing, which is lost in the carpet somewhere, the difference was absolutely amazing.

This thing just spins and spins 8 - 10 times longer than it did before the rebuild......

Takes a lot of patience to rebuild it though.....

Randy Caster

iTrader: (47)

Damn, I've never seen anyone do that, I'm gonna try on a spare bearing

CustomfibreR/C

Getting the thing apart is easy.

Putting back together is a different story though. Once you figure the method out though its not too bad. You will need a steady hand and a pair of needle nose tweezers to place the bearings in place.
Make sure you have a tray or something to work over to catch those tiny bearings or they'll be lost in the carpet forever.

mike_Webb

get a magnet or a motor and run it over the carpet where you lost the ball.

Randy Caster

iTrader: (47)

I'll give it a shot, I have a magnetic bowl to put the balls in, so I should be set there

CustomfibreR/C

From My experiment with the one bearing I think its definately worth a shot.

What I did was clean the bearing in my usual way and then after flushing it very well and blowing out all the excess cleaner I spun the bearing between my fingers. It spun quite well and seemed quite free and I was happy with the result.

Then curiosity got the better of me and I just had to take it one step further so I completely dismantled the bearing and cleaned every part in cleaner in a vibrating tray and then removed each part and wiped them down.

After some trial and error I worked out the best way to get the thing back together minus the lost ball. I then spun the bearing again between my fingers and the result was amazing. There is a huge difference in the length of time it will spin before coming to a stop.

I would be interested to see how your tests go so let me know what you think if you do decide to do it.

JoshR 85

hey i'm just wondering if the lost ball really matters and thats awesome that it will spin 8-10 times faster i'll have to try it out mayb sometime

DOMOisCOOL

I was wondering how you take apart the bearing? Do you just take apart the bearing and rebuild it or do you oil it or something?

FREAKAH

The bearing may spin more freely between your fingers but when load is placed on the bearing, the one missing ball only results in more load pressure being placed on the other balls that are left. This will result in more friction/resistance and a bearing that will not last long. This is why high quality bearings have more balls.

My $.02.

CustomfibreR/C

I totally agree that the lost ball will have an effect on the bearings life. That is why it is not going back in my car.

I don't think however, that the missing ball is the reason for it spinning so well. I think that the extra cleaning definately Improved the spinning of the bearing as opposed to the usual method.

I will try another one and see if I can keep all the balls present and accounted for and post the result....

CustomfibreR/C

Its a little complicated to explain easily but basically you take the shield retaining rings off each side of the bearing and shake the shields off. Then get a pin and push out the metal ring that holds the balls equal distance apart. You must push it out from the side of the bearing that you can see the balls (one side you can see the balls the other you can see the metal retainer) It comes out easily.
When its out then push all the balls with a pin so that they are all side by side on one side of the bearing. The centre ring will now be able to be removed by pushing it out at the point opposite to where all the balls are and the balls will fall out.

Then simply clean all the bits as well as you can and when done reassemble in the reverse order and oil with a light oil.

I hope that was not too hard to understand.

Have Fun

CustomfibreR/C

OK I tried another bearing from my car. This time I managed not to lose another Ball.

I cleaned my bearing the usual way and then tested how it spun between the fingers several times to get an average.

I then pulled it totally apart and placed all the parts in the cleaning tray. more dirt was clearly visible in the bottom of the tray.
I put it all back together and the difference was again very apparent with the spin duration about 4 times longer than after the original clean.

It definately gets your bearings a lot cleaner but whether or not its worth the hassle is another thing. You need the hands of a surgeon to put the darn things back together.

FREAKAH

I have a ultrasonic jewelry cleaner that I bought just for cleaning bearings but I still didn't use it yet(still using it to clean girlfriend's jewelry! ).

When I get around to using it, i'm going to remove both sheilds and use mineral spirits for the cleaning solution.

Has anybody here used any type of ultrasonic cleaner?

Neil Rabara

The maintenance to do one bearing is alot of time and effort. Is it worth all that time and effort to tear apart all the bearings in your car, then rebuild them and reinstall them in the car? Wouldn't it be easier to just soak them in a solvent or blow them out in a bearing blaster?

CustomfibreR/C

Yes I agree that it is very time consuming but it is raining here and I was a little bored

I do think that this method would get the bearings cleaner than any other methods but you would have to be really keen to go through the whole proceedure because it is a major pain in the you know what..

Maybe it would be something you would do once a season at best but I will say that there is a definate Improvement after its done