Since I had the bike up on a lift, with the wheels off, I decided to take advantage of having it apart and do a drive shaft spline lube job. All was going according to plan until looking at the pivot bearings. The Left side cone/inner race has bizarre diagonal marks along with the common wear marks. That side is missing one needle, which allows the others to get sideways! Not good, so this will slow things down…..
I recall years ago changing these bearings on a different final drive, and discovered there was an after-market bearing set that had no needles, just a cone fitting into the pressed in race. Is that still available? Any comments on using them if so?
It just seems like BMW kinda dropped the ball on that design IMHO. It’s a big heavy bike, and single sided swing arm that puts a heck of a lot of force on those teeny weeny needle bearing that have such a small contact area to distribute the load.
Anyhow, can’t change the bike but need to get it fixed. Is there a place here that deals with the Bearing removal and install?
looks a bit tricky getting the pressed in race out and the replacement back in.
