Rear wheel bearings getting loose on my'98 454. Any advice on changing these? Are bearings grease lubed or get oil from rearend?
Have not purchased them yet.

 

Some advice- CHANGE THEM! I'm in the process of putting my uncle's 98 454 back together right now. Right rear wheel bearings went out, pushed the axle down some and put the brake disc into the caliper. Warped the disc, grinded out the caliper, so now they are buying a new rotor and caliper. The bearings aren't lubed up really. It was a pain to get them pressed out of the axle carriers too. I took the axle carriers off the bike and took that to the dealership to have them press in the new bearings. That way I didn't have to pay them for labor for just turning wrenches.

Get those bearings replaced man, it will benefit you to do so.

 

Thanks Andy, I am definitely changing them. Just wanted to know what I was getting into. Bike has 5500 miles, 1st wheel bearing to go!
What would make shock bushings wear out quickly? Changed front shocks about 1500 miles ago and bushings are worn already. I always had carb problems- plug fouling, popping & back firing - until this year. Took it to a local guy, I think he adjusted float level. Stayed with stock main jet & put a K&N air filter, runs great now! Local dealership tells me that K&N filter could blow engine, what do you think?
This bike gets to 60mph quickly & no back firing when I back off throttle.
Thanks, ozze

 

only thing I can think about a K&N messing up an engine is that its less restrictive and would allow dirt and stuff to get in there easily. Don't know about the shock bushings, but over time I'm sure they would get worn. You can probably get new bushings for them.

On the bearings, Its pretty easy to get the rear end torn down with an impact wrench and some plain hand tools. If you have the means to do it, I would take the axle carriers off myself and then just take them someplace to have the bearings popped out and new ones pressed in. That way you don't have to pay them labor to take the back of the quad apart. It cost me $100 to get the bearings done. Like $35 apiece for the bearings and $22 for a half hour of labor, plus tax. Would have been a lot worse if they would have been the ones taking the thing apart. Oh, and they were a pain for the guy to press in, even with the hydraulic press. I knocked one of them out myself, but the other one I couldn't get the bearing race out. The guy at the dealership welded a bead on the race to have something to get a bite on, and then finally beat it out with something.

 

Thanks for the reply, Andy..........Did the job yesterday, went quite well! bearings came out fairly easy. Once c-clip was out, a simple knock and bearings popped out. Axle & housing still look in good shape for amount of miles. Only did 1 side, other side is still tight. Only part I could not get was a gasket where axle housing mounts to rear end. Old gasket looked good so I reused it as I had to get bike back together & moved. Is it important to replace it with a new one?
Did you say you are doing a 98 454 for someone? If so how many miles? Did they ever have popping & back firing? Let me know what other problems you find.
Thanks, ozze

 

Oh yeah. 98 454 that belongs to my uncle. My cousin will take it out and sink in the mud once a year, and I'll spend a couple weeks repairing it about once a year after that. This thing has had more carb problems than anything. I've been in there 7-8 times at least. Figured out they were using a rusty gas can, and they had to buy a whole new carb (cause it was just finished off basically). Runs good now, but then this bearing thing ate the rear brakes up (and we didn't know anything about the bearing being bad- but then again its not my quad and I don't ride it). He went up a steep hill, hit the brakes and nothing happenned so it went back and rolled a couple times over his butt. That broke the front brake reservior and bent racks and made a few cracks in the plastic.

Earlier, the useless footbrake got its little end cable hung up in the rotor and ripped the mechanical brake caliper off the axle carrier. That won't ever be replaced. You name a bolt on the machine, and its probably set in so much with mud that It would have to be drilled out. I've done about 4 so far in just the stuff I'm working on (mainly those little screws that are here and there).

Here's what I'm doing.

Put new grips on it (wow, real hard. I put them on with golf grip tape and solvent in 5 mins). When the parts come in from Canada where I ordered them, its getting a new front brake lever assembly, a new rear driveshaft bearing, the wheel bearings are already in, then it gets a new rear disc, new caliper, and a few of those expansion nuts that hold plastic and stuff together. Right now the airbox is off of it, cause the one way valve in the bottom of it was ripped, so the airbox is full of freakin dirt (which at one time I assume was mud). Pulled the battery and litteraly pulled handfulls of mud out of that compartment. Put water in the battery and charged it back up. Rewired the backup light, siliconed it and put in a new switch. I'll have to bleed out the brakes of course (full bleed starting with no fluid in the lines). And we already bent the handlebars back. It would be a good bike if it was ever taken care of. You just can't run one *** deep in mud and then let it sit for a month before you use it again (without washing it of course). I think $400 later, its going to be ok. They have spent enough fixing this thing at different times that they could have put all that money together and got a freakin Grizzly or Rincon or something. I think they paid about $5300 for it new.

So far before this, its had - new seal in the front differential, new rear driveshaft bearing, new air filter, and a new carburator. plus a set of brake pads all the way around I guess. Thats just the stuff the dealership did. I replaced the fuel line, gas cap, cleaned the carb several times, did the valves, replaced the battery, changed out all the fluids a few times, and probably some other stuff I forgot about. The backup light switch is right there below the gear indicator lights, and I bet I've put 3 switches in it so far. Funny how you can get mud up in under there?

This quad is known as "The PoorWheeler"

Seemingly enough, all I ever did on my 500 AC was fix a CV (lift kit I assume) and replace the rear driveshaft bearing. It has 1900 miles when I sold it.

The PoorWheeler only has 2100.


Dude, consider yourself lucky on the bearings. I beat on the left side one for a while before I got it out. Beat on the right side for an eternity before I finally just had the shop do it and press the new ones in themselves. I wasn't getting it out. Only thing in there was the race, the bearings just fell out in my hand almost. They were gone.

 

Oh yeah, I just used the old gaskets too. They were still good.

 

Forgot to mention, this guy that worked on carb also adjusted valves and clutch. Made a big difference. For $30 per hour! I have also changed bearings in the shurt drive shaft that comes out of engine and goes to rear end. Just the races and a couple of ***** left! Have replaced ball joints as left wheel fell off couple years ago with my son. New ball joints were a little sloppy in a-arms so had to modify!