Now I have something "new" to me... and a new project

As reported earlier in my ride report I took the trailer on my ride to do some work for a friend the other day and all was fine... until on the way back home I started hearing a noise from the trailer. I could tell it wasn't the bike but farther behind me. When I had the trailer unhitched from the bike I set it on some blocks to get the wheel off the ground and gave the wheel a spin. The wheel did just spin and spin and spin with no indications of binding at all. BUT it was making a LOT of noise while spinning. I figured bearings were going out. Bad timing since I intend to pull the trailer to FerrySTOC coming up mid-May.

I jumped onto the Unigotrailers.com web site and initially ordered a set of bearings (All Balls). I checked out using my credit card. Last time I ordered something, a bolt set for the receiver, the checkout failed to work properly and the order never went through. And when I contacted their tech support line they ended up just sending me the bolt set but never charged me for them and the order never showed up on my account with them. This time I was able to get farther in the checkout process and it looked like the order would go through. But then the confirmation page failed to show up giving me a web error instead. Later I did check my account at Uni-Go and the order showed up as pending... and then later that night it showed up as cancelled. I again contacted tech support but it was after hours yet the tech did reply (email) that he would talk to sales in the morning. I then decided that if the bearings were bad the axle and spacer were likely not great either and emailed the tech back to say I wanted to change my order to get the entire axle kit that includes axle, bearings, washers, spacer. Today I verified my previous order was still showing as cancelled and put in the order for the axle kit and this time I used PayPal. This time the checkout process went all the way through with a confirmation page at the end and no errors online. I even receive an email from the tech support guy that he saw the order go in. I hope the kit arrives in the next week or two so I can get the new axle and bearings installed and tested before my trip.

Another issue I discovered when I went to pull the old axle out is that both ends of the axle are recessed in the swing arm. I have an OLD Craftsman tool set with 3 bars of sockets to fit 1/4", 3/8", and 1/2" drives. ALL of those sockets are metric. And ALL of those sockets are NOT thin walled at all. I have the 19 mm socket for the axle head and axle nut but the socket sidewalls are to thick to fit into the recesses so I cannot get the nut off the axle at all. So I searched local stores nearby and no thin walled sockets, or at least none that were labeled as that. Maybe all sockets are now thin walled? So I ordered a small set of deep thin walled sockets from Amazon that have a removable no-mar sleeve that can be taken off for fitting into tight recesses. Today I just happened to be on the other side of town so I dropped in at the nearby Harbor Freight. They only have sets that cost more than what I just ordered on Amazon. Across the street was Northern Tool (I like them a lot) and they did have individual thin walled sockets so I bought one 19 mm socket. I figured I'll need a socket at both ends of the axle when I install and apply torque to it. I was able now able to remove the axle at least and inspect the bearings and other parts. Yep, the left bearing was fine but the right bearing was the one making all the noise. Here is a picture of the wheel hub and bearings and spacer and axle and axle nut. You can see both bearings have their inner dust covers badly worn and the spacer is in bad shape. The outer bearing dust covers (not showing) were in good shape though . The axle is actually pretty good as is the hub on both sides... just needs to be cleaned up a little.
PXL_20240419_152601610.jpg
 
Axle kit ordered from UniGoTrailers.com the afternoon of April 19. USPS says it was picked up by the Post Office that same evening. USPS also says ETA is Monday, April 22! 3 day shipping from putting in the order to my home. Not bad. Even Amazon doesn't always get that right.
 
Well, the axle kit took a tour of central Iowa yesterday and today. It did arrive at my local Post Office facility early Monday morning but then took off on a trip down to a small town 50 miles away. Last night it decided to make its way back to that same local PO and was delivered in the mail today. Temps in the garage stayed between 65-69F with clouds in the sky and a little drizzle earlier but not while I stayed in the garage.

The OLD axle kit is a 8.8 grade (metric) bolt and nut with nylon insert, 2 standard 1/16" thick washers and an inner spacer with a 1/16" sidewall. The old spacer was just right at the length needed to touch the bearing race when the axle nut was tightened. When the axle nut and axle was removed the old spacer was able to flop to one side inside the wheel hub (the wheel hub is only double the diameter of the spacer so not a lot of flopping going on). The old bearings needed a bit of coaxing to come out but they weren't hard to pull. Just set the blade of my standard screw driver against the spacer and give it a few good taps with the hammer, for both bearings.

The NEW axle kit is a lot beefier than the old kit. Both old and new axles are a 12 mm bolt. The new axle is a 10.9 grade (metric) bolt and a 10 grade nut with nylon insert, two 1/8" thick washers and an inner spacer with a 1/8" sidewall. All the newer bolts, nuts, washers, and spacer are made of hardened steel rather than the standard steel of the old kit. The new spacer is about 1 mm longer than the actual space between the races of the new bearings when installed so the bearings hold it in place in the hub.

I cleaned up the hub. Then I put some high-speed grease on the inner side of the bearings and they went right in without any tapping needed, but I did need to push them evenly. I also put a light coat of grease on the axle bolt. The torque that was recommended to me by Uni-Go is 90 ft-lbs. I noticed that the nylon insert on the nut still did not get into any threads of the axle bolt even when tightened. The nut still had 3/8" of threads on the bolt before getting to the nylon insert (deep nut). I added a little blue thread lock to the outer threads just to be sure. I tried as hard as I could to get 90 ft-lbs of torque but the trailer just wanted to lift up off the floor and onto its side even with a counter breaker bar on the other end of the axle. I did better laying the trailer over on its side on some padding and then crossing my arms to get better leverage but I just couldn't get good enough leverage to get all the way to 90 so settled on 85++ ft-lbs. The wheel does have less than 1 mm side to side movement but I can see the bearings do not budge between the sides of the swing arm at all. They are tight.

I aired up the tire to the 30 psi recommended on the VIN and swing arm labels and gave it a spin. The wheel spins freely with no binding. It spins down very slowly and then reverses, and slowly reverses again, until it settles with the heavier bit down. I need to buy some more balance beads so I can put in 1 oz. I'll be replacing the front tire on the AK within the next few weeks and have just enough beads for that. Thinking of getting Counteract balance beads this time. Got Dyna Beads last time. I've had good results with balance beads.PXL_20240423_173807938.jpgPXL_20240423_200645248.jpg
 
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If the play in the rear wheel is the bearings sliding that 1mm ya might want to put the old spacer in but if those bearings slipped in I would put red loctite on them. You don't want the bearings spinning in the wheel.
 
The play in the rear wheel happens regardless. I remember that the wheel actually had just a little bit more play with the old axle kit and spacer.The bearings did have to be pressed in but I was able to do that by hand. I don't think the outer races will spin in the hub (but I could be wrong). The old spacer won't do anything to change that.
 
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Al st1100 said:
If the play in the rear wheel is the bearings sliding that 1mm ya might want to put the old spacer in but if those bearings slipped in I would put red loctite on them. You don't want the bearings spinning in the wheel.
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The Uni-Go tech support guy I talk with agrees with you about the red Loctite. I am thinking that the play in the wheel before might be why the bearing went bad.
 
Al st1100 said:
If the play in the rear wheel is the bearings sliding that 1mm ya might want to put the old spacer in but if those bearings slipped in I would put red loctite on them. You don't want the bearings spinning in the wheel.
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I bought this "retaining" compound to use when I replaced bearings in the mower deck spindles I rebuilt, seems to be holding up to the heat and abuse so far.

Retaining Compound Green 620 Sleeve Retainer
 
Josh_ST said:
I bought this "retaining" compound to use when I replaced bearings in the mower deck spindles I rebuilt, seems to be holding up to the heat and abuse so far.

Retaining Compound Green 620 Sleeve Retainer
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This stuff was regularly used in the machine shop to hold sleeves in place when sleeve repairs were being done to damaged metal through holes. It always astounded me how that stuff can lock two smooth pieces of metal together and withstand considerable forces without letting go.
 
Josh_ST said:
I bought this "retaining" compound to use when I replaced bearings in the mower deck spindles I rebuilt, seems to be holding up to the heat and abuse so far.

Retaining Compound Green 620 Sleeve Retainer
Click to expand...
From the About description:
"Needs to be heated to 250 ℃/482℉ when disassembling, and mechanical auxiliary equipment is required."
To me, it tell us for disassembly, "bring acetylene torch or super-duper heat gun and big-a$$ prybar!"
 
Red Loctite needs 500F heat applied to release and a good breaker bar or punch. I have a Black and Decker heat gun from 1985 that puts out plenty of hot air for that. It still puts out at least 750F heat.
 
Sadlsor said:
From the About description:
"Needs to be heated to 250 ℃/482℉ when disassembling, and mechanical auxiliary equipment is required."
To me, it tell us for disassembly, "bring acetylene torch or super-duper heat gun and big-a$$ prybar!"
Click to expand...
nope.
 
rjs987 said:
Red Loctite needs 500F heat applied to release and a good breaker bar or punch. I have a Black and Decker heat gun from 1985 that puts out plenty of hot air for that. It still puts out at least 750F heat.
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I have used it before and it comes apart. If you trust that the outter bearing spinning on the wheel is ok and won't cause damage then it's on you.
 
Took off the axle and bearings tonight. Cleaned the hub bearing surface and the outer race of the bearings with gas and let them sit during dinner. Then I put a bead of red Loctite around the outer circumference of each bearing. I made sure the spacer was in there and then put the bearings back in and turned them around to spread the Loctite evenly. I torqued the axle very close to 90 ft-lbs. I have a micrometer torque wrench and a torsion bar torque wrench. Usually I use the torsion bar wrench for the big ft-lbs. This time I had one on one side and the other on the other side. The micrometer torque wrench only goes up to a max of 83.5 ft-lbs so I set it to that. The torsion bar goes WAY beyond that. I laid the trailer on its side and this time I was able to tighten the axle and nut better... for some reason. Maybe I was feeling it today, or maybe I found a better angle between the two wrench handles. Yeah, that was it. I tightened until the micrometer wrench clicked but knew that wasn't going to be enough so I kept on it until the torsion bar pointer made it all the way to 90 ft-lbs. That's what Uni-Go says it should be.

A little red Loctite oozed out of both sides so I think I got enough in there. I wiped up the drips and kept spinning the wheel. Not hard since I could get it going and it just kept going for a long time on its own. After about 10-15 minutes the oozing stopped. Now to let it sit for 24 hours to let the red stuff fully cure and we'll see if that stops any movement of the wheel side to side. As I said before it was only maybe 1 mm movement but the red Loctite should stop even that. Family daycare tomorrow until near dinner time so no riding anyway until after that. The rains are supposed to hold off now until Friday morning so I might get some time pulling the trailer tomorrow night.

Oh, while I had them out I took a picture of the bearings to have the bearing numbers on hand. They are All Balls bearings.
PXL_20240424_212753421.jpg
 
rjs987 said:
Took off the axle and bearings tonight. Cleaned the hub bearing surface and the outer race of the bearings with gas and let them sit during dinner. Then I put a bead of red Loctite around the outer circumference of each bearing. I made sure the spacer was in there and then put the bearings back in and turned them around to spread the Loctite evenly. I torqued the axle very close to 90 ft-lbs. I have a micrometer torque wrench and a torsion bar torque wrench. Usually I use the torsion bar wrench for the big ft-lbs. This time I had one on one side and the other on the other side. The micrometer torque wrench only goes up to a max of 83.5 ft-lbs so I set it to that. The torsion bar goes WAY beyond that. I laid the trailer on its side and this time I was able to tighten the axle and nut better... for some reason. Maybe I was feeling it today, or maybe I found a better angle between the two wrench handles. Yeah, that was it. I tightened until the micrometer wrench clicked but knew that wasn't going to be enough so I kept on it until the torsion bar pointer made it all the way to 90 ft-lbs. That's what Uni-Go says it should be.

A little red Loctite oozed out of both sides so I think I got enough in there. I wiped up the drips and kept spinning the wheel. Not hard since I could get it going and it just kept going for a long time on its own. After about 10-15 minutes the oozing stopped. Now to let it sit for 24 hours to let the red stuff fully cure and we'll see if that stops any movement of the wheel side to side. As I said before it was only maybe 1 mm movement but the red Loctite should stop even that. Family daycare tomorrow until near dinner time so no riding anyway until after that. The rains are supposed to hold off now until Friday morning so I might get some time pulling the trailer tomorrow night.

Oh, while I had them out I took a picture of the bearings to have the bearing numbers on hand. They are All Balls bearings.
Click to expand...
Now you know any is any free play is normal and not the bearing spinning around loose. All you needed was a light coat. Even I feel better now :wave1:
 
Went out to the garage and checked the play on the trailer wheel. I know, it hasn't been 24 hours yet so the red stuff isn't fully cured yet. So I didn't push on it real hard but hard enough to tell that it is very solid now. Before it didn't take a lot of push to move the wheel side to side. Now I cannot see any movement at all... but I can barely feel just a little movement if I hold my finger on the space between the hub and the swing arm. About as much as I would expect between the inner and outer races of a bearing. Like I said, I can feel it very slightly but cannot see it move. The wheel still just spins and spins forever when off the floor and I give it a spin.
 
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