I have a 2010 Ultra and already had to replace the wheel bearings. I noticed a howling noise coming from the front end and found that both bearings were in really bad shape. I did some searching and found several instances where owners of 2009 and 2010 Harleys were experiencing wheel bearing failures. Some bikes only had 5,000 miles. Since I was 6 weeks out of warranty, I thought I would call Harley customer service to see if they were aware of an issue and would they consider covering my bearing replacement. After speaking to them for a few minutes, he did concede that Harley changed the seal used on the bearings. Apparently when they changed over to 25mm bearings in 2008 or 2009, the seal wasn’t adequate and they started experiencing failures. They now have a superseded part number for the bearing which now has a double lip seal. I would advise that you check your bearings to make sure you don’t have any issues. Mine didn’t seize, but that is not something you want to happen as the results could be catastrophic. I mentioned this to my buddy who had just taken his Road King in for a new front tire. He asked them to be sure and check the wheel bearings. As it turned out, they were degraded and needed replacement. His bike had less then 10,000 miles on it.
i have a 1999 road king , i got new rear wheel bearings put in two days ago and drove 10 miles and blew out the bearing , every thing was lined up good . what would do that so quick ,
i have a 1999 road king , i got new rear wheel bearings put in two days ago and drove 10 miles and blew out the bearing , every thing was lined up good . what would do that so quick ,
Today I was riding home from work and felt a grinding noise coming from the front end. I stopped and checked and noticed that the front rear bearing's cover was gone and had lost some balls. I kept going home (3 miles) and stopped at the garage. My 08 Streetglide has only 14570 miles. Is this supposed to happen? Anyone out there has had this issue? Thanks.
I purchased the replacements from jireh cycle for 5 bucks or so each. Except the drive cog I had to buy that one from harley.
I keep both sizes in stock now. The big size for my bikes and the old 3/4 for older bikes because I have found I can make people's weekend better by having them
Exactly...after 08 they are junk...I had two failures in 13 k on a new bike...hd mechanic told me they are junk...rusty right out of the box...almost no grease...
Replace with timken or all balls. Cheap life insurance...
All you guys who have bearing failures should be filing complaints with the NHTSA. It's easy, just fill in an online form. This is a safety issue and the MoCo has basically said screw you. There is already a case file on it, just not enough complaints to start an action.
The MoCo should be require to ID what dates scooters with bad bearing were built, recall them and replace them. Non of this wait till they fail and let the customer pay the bill. People who already did the repair out of pocket should be allowed to send in a copy of their repair receipt and get a refund.
This is how big companies are punished for using cheap substandard parts.
This thread has been around long enough for me (09 Ultra ) to go thru another frt wheel bearing. At 77k took Ultra in for new tires , Bingo wheel bearing on ABS side registered a No Go ...
"What we have here for wheel bearings are junk " IMO !!!
After reading this thread this summer prior to going on a long trip I pulled the front bearings from my 2012 ultraclassic, they actually were ok at 12000 miles but decided to replace them since I had removed them. I got a set of all balls and you can not get the ABS bearing from them so I got 2 new sets from Harley. My friend, who is a mechanic, and I opened the seals on them all, what we discovered was they all seriously lacked grease, they might have had enough to last max 15000 miles, we packed them with amsoil grease installed them and they are working fine. I have put about 10000 miles on them. Lack of grease is the issue from these two brands.
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