Wheel bearings

Pulling my rear wheel in the process of disassembly for cleaning and a sprocket/chain swap, I noted that the oil seal on the coupling assembly had literally popped out of place. Checked my bearings and, sure 'nuff, the coupler bearing has tangible play, and the hub bearings feel a little notchy too. I had just made my orders with various companies, so now I'll be sitting around waiting for bearings as well.

I figure I could get them at an auto store (NAPAonline appears to list them), or bikebandit.com who, I suppose, orders them from Kawasaki since their OEM catalog is identical to Kawa's parts catalog. I'd be spending at least $50 for my rear bearings at either of those places ...but I found an online bearing supplier ( www.vxb.com ) that has them for cheap. About $15 for all three rears, for example. I'm going to measure my bearings with my calipers first to verify the sizes, but this looks promising. I'll update if/when I buy from them.

Still surprises me, though, that a vehicle with only 20k on the odo needs stuff like this...guess it's the age, and the bad seals. I'm too used to my Datsun, most stuff on that car has only been replaced after about 200k mi!

Those are standard size bearings, and they are available at bearing supply houses, NAPA, parts stores, Geainger, ect. If you look on the edge of the bearings, there will be a number like 6304, 6203, 6302, etc, take that number to any of the places mentioned above and get new bearings for around $15.

If you had mentioned the year model of your bike, I could have told you the number, but you can look at the parts diagrams for your bike at buykawasaki.com, and it will list the number.

Post edited by: steell, at: 2005/10/26 08:08

If you buy sealed bearings you may still need to pack them properly with grease. When I replaced my wheel bearings I picked out the seal in one and found no grease.

Will any of the clips or seals need replacement when new bearings are installed?

On buykawasaki.com, they generally list the bearing number alongwith the Kaw part number. The 6304 is a standard code for ID, OD and thickness and any bearing supply place can easily get you a replacement. It is up to you if you want to used sealed bearings or sealed on one side only or no seals. I use sealed on one side and keep the outside open for greasing. The OEM grease seals can be reused. IF they are very sloppy and want to fall out, you may want to replace them. You will want to reuse the clips as you will not likely find replacements at a hardware store due to the odd metric sizes.

I just replaced my front and rear wheel bearings which I got from Allballs Racing. They were all sealed bearings, the Rear bearing kit came with the coupler bearing and seal as well as the two hub bearings and seals. The Front bearing kit came with sealed hub bearings and seals and a new seal for the speedometer assembly.

Too bad, I won't be able to test them out until spring.

steell wrote:

Those are standard size bearings, and they are available at bearing supply houses, NAPA, parts stores, Geainger, ect. If you look on the edge of the bearings, there will be a number like 6304, 6203, 6302, etc, take that number to any of the places mentioned above and get new bearings for around $15.

If you had mentioned the year model of your bike, I could have told you the number, but you can look at the parts diagrams for your bike at buykawasaki.com, and it will list the number.<br><br>Post edited by: steell, at: 2005/10/26 08:08

Yea, I had a sig on the old forum, didn't realize they didn't transfer over. I found the numbers on buykawasaki.com already, but I appreciate the offer! 6303 and 6206. Grainger's online listed one of them but it was like $20ea IIRC, and NAPAonline was showing similar high prices for both numbers. The NAPA store usually seems worse. I figure I might swing by the Grainger store anyway and see if their in-store database has both at reasonable prices, and maybe I'll check the autoparts places on the way. Since none of those ('cept maybe Grainger) deal in bearings in volume, though, I doubt they'll be quite so cheap as a bearing warehouse, and sadly, I don't know of any of those local to me. Maybe I should try yellowpages...I'm so lazy...

Sure 'nuff, there's a bearing house several miles up the road with all three rear bearings under $15. Now, do I pat myself on my back for my patience (since I held off ordering from the online bearing supplier last night to see if I could contact someone in the morning locally) or impatience (because I didn't want to wait for shipping!)?

Really, every now and then I need to stop a minute while looking for things online and realize that many places have a lot of this stuff available same-day, just a short drive away.