Sup fellas, I'm going to replace the wheel bearings in my spare KLX300 wheels and am not entirely sure how to go about it. The service manual states to just pound them out with a bearing driver, which looks like nothing more than a screwdriver shank. I found that you can move the inner steel tube to the side to get at the bearing race to drive it out, so thats no problem. Where I'm confused is, do you drive both bearings out the same side, or when you pop out the hub side do you flip it over, remove the snap ring, and drive the other bearing out that way?

From other sites with other bikes it sounds like you install the snap ring side bearing first and that locates the other bearing. Again, do you drive them both from one side or do you set the bearing in from the snap ring side, drive it down some, replace the snap ring, and then seat it against the snap ring?

For other bearings I've always used the socket+hammer trick to seat them. Sure a bearing drive set is better but I've not had reason to spend $50+ on a set of tools that will only get used 1 time every few years at the most.

 

hey! drive the bearings out from the oppiside of the wheel using a punch, big screwdriver or something similar.
When your ready to go back in with them, throw the bearings in the freezer for 30min or more, then heat the wheel with a heat gun, this will make reinstalling a lot easier. theres no reason to install them from the oppisite side, i dont think thats possible, usally there will be a shelf to stop the bearing, then reinstall the snap-ring.

 

Thanks, I've never been inside MC wheels before.

 

anytime!
Get those bearing as cold as you can.
Look out for a spacer that may be inside the wheel between the bearings, if there's one there it should have a little play in it.
When driving the bearing in, dont beat on the inside race, get a socket thats the same O.D. of the bearingand a dead-blow hammer to beat them in nice and straight. With the hub being hot and the bearing being cold, they should go in fairly easily.

Some people go as far as to gently remove the seal on the bearing and pack it with grease. Id practice this on the old bearing.

 

I'm pretty good with the rubber seals, I used to have to relube the bearings on my RC stuff all the time and those seals were paper thin. I deal with press and shrink fits at work but thanks for the reminder, should work out well here. I can leave the bearings in the package and stick them out in the snow its 9F out right now, and put the wheel over the kerosene heater in the garage.

 

Sometime mothernature can be the best refer...........used to have beer out the window in a laundry bag to keep them coldwhen I was in the military!
Hope it goes well for you!

 

That's a project for another day, spent 2 hrs in the garage whipping up the wheel stand in another thread. Forgot to get kerosene for the portable heater so it was a balmy 16 degrees in there.