10 replies to this topic

[Rich's trailer]

Hi all

Nice forum by the way, very clean looking.

I've just acquired a single motorcycle trailer that has mini rear hubs. The wheels had a fair amount of play so I thought I give them a look over and maybe re-grease and re-adjust them. I'm pretty familiar with rear wheel bearings (but not mini ones) and was expecting to find tapered bearings in there - wrong!

Firstly the hub did not want to come off, so I used a length of wood at the rear and hammered it outward. It suddenly gave but only moved 20mm or so.
Undeterred by this I attached a 3 jaw puller to the hub and wound it off. Once clear I saw that these hubs have what I assume (after reading some of the previous posts on here) are the older style ball bearings in them and that due to the separate spacer becoming seized I had ripped apart the inner or rear bearing - which is no loss as these bearing are done anyway.

So my trailer has now been left with one side propped up with house bricks until I decide what to do now.

My questions are,

What's the best way to proceed with trying to remove the spacer which is rusted pretty solidly to the stub axle?

Do I need to worry about retaining the spacer - if not then the dremmel will be out and no doubt it'll be off in about 5 minutes.

Fitting replacement taper roller bearings - new issue..

I'm not overly sure about using spacers with tapered bearings. All the trailers I've seen that have tapered bearings don't have spacers, in fact neither do the cars. The last one I did was '96 VW Golf and there was no spacer. To set the tightening force you tighten the nut until the keyed washer behind it can only just me moved with a screw driver, then pop a castle crown over the nut and lock it with the split pin.
That is a good system which is easy to set and solid.

I notice that the mini's system doesn't use a keyed washer and also has a castled nut, this might give me an issue as there are only a limited number of positions that the castle nut can be locked into.

So does that mean that I no choice other than to find bearing of a suitable quality with built in spacers, or somehow remove the original spacers and re-use them. In which case I refer back to the first question - any tips on a method to get the spacers off?

Cheers, Rich.

Edited by Rich's trailer, 14 February 2011 - 02:18 PM.

[Wil_h]

If you buy a new bearing kit it will be the taper type with no spacer (or should be) These are certinally what Minispares/Unipart supply. When fitted, the spec is to tighten to 80Nm then keep tightening until the hole is visible through a gap in the nut.

Bit of a bugger that the spacer is rusted on, but gently cut on opposite sides with a grinder or dremmel should see it removed. Tidy the shaft with some emery cloth and bang on the new bearing. sorted.

well that's what I'd do.

[Udo]

If you buy a new bearing kit it will be the taper type with no spacer (or should be) These are certinally what Minispares/Unipart supply. When fitted, the spec is to tighten to 80Nm then keep tightening until the hole is visible through a gap in the nut.

Bit of a bugger that the spacer is rusted on, but gently cut on opposite sides with a grinder or dremmel should see it removed. Tidy the shaft with some emery cloth and bang on the new bearing. sorted.

well that's what I'd do.

I'd second that

[Rich's trailer]

If you buy a new bearing kit it will be the taper type with no spacer (or should be) These are certinally what Minispares/Unipart supply. When fitted, the spec is to tighten to 80Nm then keep tightening until the hole is visible through a gap in the nut.

Bit of a bugger that the spacer is rusted on, but gently cut on opposite sides with a grinder or dremmel should see it removed. Tidy the shaft with some emery cloth and bang on the new bearing. sorted.

well that's what I'd do.

Okay, I'm sorted then, I'm just waiting for this seller to confirm that they have the raised shaft to replace the spacer. If so I think they should last just fine on a trailer.
ebay specials

This trailer won't see many miles and not much weight either.
The trailer weighs about 60 Kg's and my bike weighs about 140 kgs.

[Rich's trailer]

On second thoughts I think I'll be buying these from minisport.
Bearings

Are they any good?

Cheers, Rich.

[nicksuth]

On second thoughts I think I'll be buying these from minisport.
Bearings

Are they any good?

Cheers, Rich.

They'll do for a trailer (so would the ball bearings) but I wouldn't put these on a Mini as I very much doubt they are pukka TIMKEN - GHK1805. PS - this might be of use to you. . . . . .

[Rich's trailer]

Thanks for the diagram - I'll pay close attention to make sure I get the seal in the right way around.

Cheers guys.

[Rich's trailer]

Just a quick follow up to this, and some advice needed please.

I installed the bearings and noticed that they were very tight once torque up properly. I decided to let it go as when the wheels were back on you could hardly tell they were tight. The first journey I did the hubs got very hot so I stopped to let them cool before completely the journey. They also spat out all the excess grease during this trip but after that seemed to settle down - not really getting hot anymore, all good I thought.

This weekend I had to take the wheels off some thought it'd be a good opportunity to regrease - they’ve done less than 1,000 miles total by the way.

One side was very tight feeling still but okay I think - I force some more grease in and moved on.
The other side felt notchey! - I took the hub off and the out bearing has damaged rollers. Looks like the heat got to it.

So it's either the hubs are rubbish or the minisport bearing were not to the correct tolerance?
Maybe I should have gone for Timken..

Okay, so from here I'm going to pick up another set of wheel bearing for that hub and change them.
Also I think I should shim the bearings so that when they are properly torqued up they don't bind.
If this is okay what shims should I buy?

PS I really don't like this hub/bearing arrangement.
Is there a conversion kit available to convert into sealed plain bearings?
I'm thinking just 2 of the right bearing and a spacer and then the tighten torque would not be able to effect the bearings.

[mike.]

I recently had a problem with non genuine bearings being too tight. When torqued the hub was stiff to turn, even when just nipped up half a turn past hand tight the bearings started to bind. This was on brand new hubs too so I knew the hubs weren't the problem.

I took them back and got another non genuine set, but from a different manufacturer and they worked fine. So it seems there was either a dodgy batch of them made to the wrong tolerance or one manufacturer out there making them wrong.

I've never had problems with non genuine bearings before and i'll still buy non genuine again, but timken bearings will ensure you have no problems at all if you just want piece of mind.

I also thought of shimming them, but couldn't find any shims the right sort of size to sit on the face of the built in spacer nicely so gave up on that idea, but shimming would work.

You want them so when torqued up, you can move the hub with one hand on the studs. It should move easily and feel smooth all round, then with the wheel on, you should be able to spin the wheel freely.

[tiger99]

The new bearings are clearly defective, and unsafe. The supplier is liable in law, and should give you a refund. Mini hubs are designed for the nut to be torqued up tightly, bearing clearance being maintained by the spacer, whether loose of built into the bearings. See what I have just written in another thread:

http://www.theminifo...dling-problems/

[Rich's trailer]

I think in order to claim anything I should have acted back in 2011, from where I am now I have to buy again and actually make sure it's right before moving on.

to be honest - I'd just like to buy some ebay cheapo bearings now and shim them to work if they don't.
This is just a light weight trailer that I tow behind my VW T4 (which weighs in at aprrox 2,200Kg with my camper kit within), basically the trailer isn't going to crash the van even if the wheel comes off - I would, of course, preffer that it didn't!

So if I could find a source of shims I could make the bearing work however wrong they are.
Does anyone have the bearing dimensions so I can pass these on to a mechanical friend of mine?

Edited by Rich's trailer, 08 April 2013 - 09:47 AM.