On the weekend, I had a 60 X 10mm piece of folded sheet steel go through the rear tyre, went of like a rifle shot, big rifle that is (The TPMS alarmed about 1 second after this). End result a "tow" with RACQ back home, it was a Sunday. Decided to pull the rear wheel myself to have fixed with a new tyre. (Too big an intrusion to be repaired for my liking)
When cleaning the rear hub area, noticed a lot of grease spreading out from the spline drive and it was not the grey paste that should be there. My previous tyre changer had used a grease and not paste for the spline and it was everywhere. This topic has been discussed before and my thoughts now are do not use a grease based Moly but either the Honda 60 or equivilent as shown in the service manual.
However this is not the topic I wanted to start and I could not find any other postings. Out of habit, I spin the bearings. The Spline Drive Carrier bearing was so rough that you could hear it while turning it in the hub. I never heard it while doing a daily wheel turn before riding. It has also been quite warm.
Researching this issue has revealed that this is a common occurence and points to a batch of bearings made around 2004-6. (This info is third party so I can not verify it accuracy). Mine is a 2008. The bearings are 2 Koyo 6905RS bearings side by side. Only one was faulty, the outer one. There was no sign of any moisture ingress, it just felt very notchy and quite even.
I am searching for a local seller of these and will post further details.
There are 3 lessons for me here,
1/ Instruct tyre changers not to use a grease based lubricant on the spline.
2/ Always check bearings when you have anything apart.
3/ It is not difficult to remove either wheel and check everything for yourself.
Trevor
