1986 R80 Front wheel bearing Help please

[grumpyone]

Morning all;
Our 1086 R80 needs new front wheel bearings. The ones in it now are RSR (brand name Im sure) 6005 number. Im sure there is a number cross ref for these but cant find one. We dont want to drive to Denver to find a special number bearing, Im sure that they are a stock bearing if one knows which one to look for. I cant believe they had a special wheel bearing made a different size and all just for the front of this bike. Not like south bend lathe we have .(they made sure nothing interchanged :banghead ).
Any one has the number out there that I need I would appreciate it. We have the mag wheel not spoke if that matters.
Thanks as always for all the help.
Jim and Esther

Plays with guns for a living

:nra

[20774]

They are grooved ball bearings with dimensions (mm) 25x47x12. I'm sure most good bearing houses could find something that works.

[sgborgstrom]

Finding the right bearings is about 25% of the battle. You also need the right tools for the job. There is a special tool needed to remove the bearings, a normal bearing puller won't fit. You also need to heat thew hub up properly for replacement.

I pride myself on doing most the work on my bikes (including steering head bearings)but replacing the wheel bearings is such an infrequent maintenance task I opted for taking the wheel to the local dealership and having them do it earlier this week.

[grumpyone]

Thanks for the help. We found what we needed in town, the part numbers on the old ones a 6005 crossed over to a 105 and about 20 min we were back on the road again.
We notice several people on the forum here shy away from the wheel bearing problem. Guess after working on guns 35 years wheel bearings are not much of a trick. One thing we have always found was wheel bearings come out with gentle tapping moving around the bearing with a punch or a bar. The R 80 front wheel wont let you get a bite on the inside of the wheel bearing to drive it out because of the tube inside to space the bearings.
We improvise tools almost daily so we took a 5/8 piece of drill rod and cupped the end on the lathe nice and then turned just a bit behind that with a slight recess kinda like the top of an ice cream cone (mind in gutter here) This leaves a taper that can get in the very slight gap and lip on the bearing. Now the way it is it wont budge the bearing so you have to turn the drill rod red and quinch to get it good an hard and Poof your done. "Wear Safty Glasses" in case that girl brakes off a piece of the punch.
Hope it helps someone ; Dont know what they charge at BMW to do it but the right tool makes almost any job easy. If you dont have a lathe the same thing can be fashioned with a bench grinder.
Jim and Esther.

[sumran]

Glad you are back on the road. One note of caution: As previously mentioned, there are a number of items on your bike that were designed to be installed after heating and/or cooling some of the components. Some of those jobs will never be right unless the parts are at the right temperature when they are done. In some cases, expensive parts can be damaged. I have never changed the bearings on your year. Mine is an older model and has the old style bearing.

[grumpyone]

Yes there are different years and different configurations for wheel bearings and installs however the Heat and bearing removal is a well known Tool so to speak.
Being a machinist and gunsmith you have to understand lot of things are done lots of ways most items can be done correctly and in different ways also incorrectly in many ways.
Heat and cold are long know ways to brake grips of friction or binding or whatever term you use. You can place some items in the freezer and others in the oven to get the job done.
Heat on the wheel hub to remove the wheel bearings is simply done to help release the wheel bearing to make it easier to remove especially if your tool or tooling is designed for less load. Quite often this is a big help but on our wheel issue it actually requires very little effort to remove just a little engineering of the proper tool . Also heating to install was not only not necessary but If you over heat accidently the bearing you can be back where you were (excessive heat is the reason most bearings are replaced). Just take the old bearing on the new bearing for an installing tool and gently start it into its new home and when it is HOME you remove the old bearing install the pipe and other bearing. YOU MUST watch not to use the rotors for any type support while doing any of the bearing stuff. ALSO no jobs are carved in stone it is quite possible that a bearing outter shell is froze to the wheel for some reason and heat may be necessary but I avoid if possible. I have seen bearings even (not on motorcycle wheels) locktite in place and to remove these is a heat issue for sure.
Hope this info helps and does not offend anyone; only ment to help those that are so helpful to us.
Jim and Esther

[sumran]

Hope this info helps and does not offend anyone; only ment to help those that are so helpful to us.
Jim and Esther

None taken. I've never done your bearing job, since mine are different. BMW's use of heat in fitting parts goes beyond bearings. Some of the applications might cause problems or become difficult if they were done without using heat as designed.

[sgborgstrom]

Since the new-style roller bearings don't have the same kind of pre-load adjustment issues as the older bikes, I thought long and hard about taking the time to fabricate something to drive out the old bearing. Ultimately though it made more sense to me to send it out. I'm just a guy with a big shop space on a small island, raw materials are hard to come by if they are outside the normal homeowner/contractor supplies. Besides, I have quite a list of things to do to the bike before packing up for Gillette not to mention painting my house and showing forward progress on the '68 Bronco currently in pieces in one corner. The final cost/benefit calculation came out that having someone else do it made more sense this time especially since this one bike in a fleet, I (knock on wood) may never have to do this particular job again.

It always seems to come down to time and materials...always short on at least one.