How to remove the wheel bearings?

[Hoolander2]

I'd better go further and say if the disc is either stainless steel or coated it may not be able to be turned/trued -- only replaced.  Yeah, look into the caliper and it's mounts too.  Lot of times the lubricant that lets it slide freely drys up and causes problems galore.  

[Rianna]

I will order a disc and use it while I find out if the original can be turned. If it can, I will have a spare. If it can't, I will still be able to ride. Okay, is there a special lubricant for the caliper and it's mounts? The caliper says Kymco on it. I guess that doesn't necessarily mean that it is the original one either, though. I'll take a look at that axle too. Thank you all! 

[wordslinger]

The caliper says Kymco

..probably oem, and any grease will work, but a "marine" type grease might repel moisture better...as an after-thought...

[Hoolander2]

For car brakes, a special high temperature grease is called for.  Re-grease once a year or so regardless the type.     

[Rianna]

Thank you.

[TechGuy]

Rhiana,

I have not read all of the posts, do you have the correct service guide for your scooter?

What model scoot are we working on?

The radial striations on the disc could easily be caused by the wheel moving due to bad bearings. If the wear in the disc is light, you could get a machine shop to re-surface the disc for not much. They may even check it for you to see if it could be machined.  Take the bare disk and the service guide to the machine shop and they could check for you in a few seconds. Machining would be about $10-20 I am guessing. It would not take them long to machine it.  They do them every day for cars.

But...you must take the correct service guide to them with the specs for the service limits or they will not be will to check, you need to make this easy for them to help. Look in you local phone book fo machine shops.  Mine is located behind the NAPA parts store.

[Rianna]

Hi TechGuy,

It's a 2007 Agility 50. I took a lot of pics of the brake disc, the rim, the bearing seals, etc. I posted a few. Only a few pics came out and some of those were blurry from weak camera batteries. I wish a few more close-ups of the disc from different sides and different angles had turned out.

I found an auto machine & parts shop in the phone book. I doubt I have enough ink to print the entire manual, hopefully I can at least print the page with the specs you mentioned. It's my luck to run out of batteries, ink, everything at the same time. It must be that old saying...When it rains it pours.

Thank you for your help. If I can get the bearings out between now and payday I will order replacements. It's probably better to KNOW that they are good new ones. Do you happen to know if they are easier to put in than to take out? Thanks again.

[pedro]

Rianna,

Sent you a PM.   

[TechGuy]

Here is a link to the service guide.  I think the guide is in german but numbers are numbers...  http://www.wotmeworry.org.uk/manuals/Kymco/  scroll down to the correct guide.  it is a .RAR file and many ZIP or compressed file readers will extract a rar file.  i will post the critical values when I get them.  you could just write down the critical number and take them to the machine shop.  i will have them in a few minutes.

[Rianna]

Thank you, pedro. I can't even turn the camera on at the moment, though. You gave me an idea though. Broke out the old scanner. I think it was set at 300dpi but could change it to something higher easily. To get the pics to stay in the 192kb range I changed them to 2.5 inches across but told it to keep the same resolution settings. Will try to post a front and back scan of the rotor and see if it's clearer. Thanks.

[Rianna]

Please ignore the dust on the glass of the scanning surface. This thing is ancient...lol.

[TechGuy]

I read the service I linked you to.  It had a German Link name but it is in English. In the service guide, they show the bearings being pulled using a slide puller.  They have fingers that go behind the bearing and the weight slides along a shaft and and pulls them out.  The image in the page I linked you to does the same thing just using a screw instead of a slide weight. Both do the same thing. Whatever you can get will work.

It is possible that your wheels have a "detent" or groove made into the wheel that would prevent the bearing from being pushed thru the wheel using a drift ... I don't know.  What this means if you tried to push them, you are only making yourself more work.  They say to pull them, I guess we pull them.  It does say the wheel has two bearings and a spacer shaft between them. It is possible the machine shop could pull the old bearings and press the new ones in for you but that costs money... but usually not much and less for cute girls.  Total up the cost of the puller (cost or rental), transportation to the place to get the puller, time back to the wheel, pull time, press time, time to take the brake disk to the machine shop, time to ask about the disk...

The damage to the brake disk may look worse than it is.

Last time I went to the machine shop for a small project, i was charged the shop minimum, $25.00. It might be worth a phone call. Be honest but don't waste their time either. Respect their time and answer the question quickly and honestly.  if you don't know, say so and don't give them a BS answer.

[TechGuy]

There's the answer I was looking for... On the disk, the disk can be machined to a minimum of 3 MM thick.  If the damage can be removed before the disk is 3mm thick, I can be used without any issues. The guy at the machine shop will measure it and tell you in less than 10 seconds. They will place it in a machine and grind it until it s smooth and the damage is gone and as much metal as possible is left on the disk.  I don't think they charge much more than $10 or 20 for this type of grind.

[Rianna]

Thank you so much, TechGuy! I've scrounged and scoured the house over for change and only came up with a little over $12. I may have to find some wrappers and break out the penny bank. 

The OEM disc was around $60 plus shipping and I found another brand with the same dimensions I had planned to order for about $35 shipped, but this is a less expensive option and would help me to troubleshoot more between now and payday. Then I could order some bearings and start working on those. Thank you again!

[TechGuy]

You may be able to source the bearings locally too. The bearings are 'just bearings' The guys/gals are the machine shop may be able to help you find them.  They may even have them...for not much. Every machine has bearings... metric and US... they are all the same. As long as they are designed for the load range and use, they are fine.  The machine shop could be a bearings house or you may have a bearings house in town.  When you get the bearings out, take the old ones to them and let them try. You are actually talking about a "light" duty bearing in industrial sense of a bearing. They will measure the outside and inside dimensions and thickness and then look them up in one of their catalogs.

It is possible they have these in stock for less than you think.