first time wheel bearing change

on my way to work this morning i developed a slight wobbly sloshy feeling from the front end, along with a metallic squeaky sound. turning the wheel by hand on the center stand noticed dragging, so i think its a wheel bearing.

15 dollars later i have a set of bearings so now the question

this seems to be a fairly straight forward thing, freeze the bearings, heat the rim and drop the bearing in(tapping lightly if needed), is there anything else i need to know when doing this so i dont mess anything else up???

That will probably be the thing to do. I usually do things the hard way without heat or cold, then finess them in being careful not to do damage anything.


Those cops sure put alot of miles on those bikes. I havent heard a squeaky bearing since one went out on my Chevelle a few years back.

Are you going to use a propane torch or heat gun for the heating? I'd suggest keep moving the heat source around where the bearing will install without concentrating it too long in one spot.

prolly use a salamander box(large wooden box with a hole cut in it to shove forced heat into) i use when working on car rear ends and such, get the whole rim to a few hundred degrees

Heating / freezing? It's your bike, but it sounds like overkill to me. I simply clean the mating surfaces well, put a very thin film of grease on them, and use a piece of PVC to GENTLY tappa tappa tappa the outer race into the wheel and 1 minute later I'm done. Mine have always gone in with minimal effort - no muss / no fuss and no cooking the original paint off the wheels. Ed

froze the bearings and tapped with a socket and they dropped right in, but now the thing wont start, think something got rattled riding in the back of my truck. thats the first time since ive owned it that it got to travel without being the transportation. its weird, it starts off a jump pack and runs, but the instant i take the jumper off it dies, thinking this 6 month old battery dumped on me.

If possible, fully charge the battery and have it load tested at a motorcycle shop.

Check the ground cable from the negative battery connection to the engine mounting bolt.Also look at the positive connections for signs of corrosion or looseness.

battery was toasted, lucky it was still under warranty, so i got an exchange and was back on the road today.
bearings feel good and rides nice, the bearings were an easy fix, wont have any hesitation when i have to replace the rear(i know they probably wont last much longer)

bike shouldnt need battery to keep running once its started should it?

My understanding on these older bike's batteries is that it acts like a surge tank, absorbing excess voltages and supplying them when a low charging situation happens(like at low rpm).

I'd think with the battery out of circuit after the bike is started,that the light bulbs may have shortened lives also possibly damaging the ignition and charging systems.

do you think maybe i have a low charge issue as well, i hope not, this bike is turning into a money pit and i havent done any body or paint work yet.