Remove the front and rear wheels
Checking the bearings—just spinning them and calling it good doesn’t cut it.
These days you rarely see bearings so badly seized that they won’t spin at all, though once in a while you do find one.
More often than not, the problem is wear and play rather than the bearing being stuck.
With a lot of play, the bearing will still spin when you turn it by hand.
That’s what we check for. We clean the axle shaft, inspect it, then insert it and check for play.
Play in the bearing itself, play when it’s installed, play between the shaft and bearing.
We check the current bearing assembly condition—how tightly the bearing is pressed in affects how smoothly the wheel spins.
So it matters.
If everything checks out, we apply grease to the lip of the outer oil seal and we’re done.
Install it, spin the wheel while tightening, and ideally it tightens smoothly and firmly.
If it gets heavy when you tighten it down hard, that’s a problem.
Then we check the brake mounting bolts and measure the rotor thickness.
One thing that often doesn’t get cleaned is the brake disc.
It’s got a terrifying amount of gunk stuck to it. It might look clean at first glance, but spray it with brake cleaner and wipe it down…
It’s pitch black.
On the rear, you also need to check the damper and sprocket nut ★
