I was cruising at Little Sahara on the top of a dune and the rear wheels of my 3 month old 05 DS with about 25 hours locked up tight. This was a real bummer I didn't expect a new machine to lock up like that. I called my dealer and they had never heard of that happening I am just glad I have a 6 month warranty on the beast. I hope that this is a freak thing, if anyone else has heard of this happening on a new machine let me know. What would you recommend for bearings are there any higher quality bearings to use instead of stock?

 

i would just stick with getting spinners...

 

never heard of a wheel bearing locking up totally, don't even see how it could. very freak thing indeed. thank god for warranty man, somebody at the factory must have fallen asleep and forgot to pack them with grease before installing or something.
Just in case, are you sure its not the brake caliper sticking?

the stock bearings are as high a quality as anything, and higher than alot. they are tapered roller bearings rather than the single row ball bearings most bikes have. this gives them more surface area to last longer, and much greater side load ability to hold up better to power slides and side impact of wheels. their two piece construction inherent to a tapered bearing design gives the ability to seperate, clean, and repack once in a while if you ride in extreme conditions too, unlike ***** bearings.

I have an '01 I bought new in January of '01 with many hundreds of hours on it, and still running the original stock bearings. I ride creeks and mud frequently, and for this reason I remove clean and repack the bearings every year, and replace the $4.00 bearing seals every other year becasue usually its the seal that fails first, then the $70 bearings are likely to follow.

Some people have gone to an aftermarket bearing housing that accomidates 2 sets of ball bearings, but even this doesn't have the side load capacity of a tapered bearing. This side load capcity is one reason tapered bearing carriers are available aftermarket for other quads out there like the 250R, for the guys that need it in their ride styles.

 

The first thing I looked at was the brake hoping like crazy that was all it was, but there was a sick and nasty metal to metal sound that made my hair stand on end. I shouldn't say that it totally locked up, but it will roll slightly backwards, but when you push forward it pretty much stops dead. Thanks for all the input I appreciate all the good stuff on this forum!

 

Hi, I am reading quite a while the articles in this forum and learned a lot. You guys do more experience with your quads than we can do here in Germany. (but we can ride on road).

Especially your question about the bearings is interesting. Similar thing happened to a friend of mine as he drove in front of me. We haven't been to fast, but he lost his rear axle in a right corner. The axle did move out of the bearings, it was really dangerous because the rear was totally loose. We asked our dealer, he said, this never happened before. But we know for sure, this was happen at least a second time.

What we found out this happens only on 2005 models because the bearings are not filled enough with grease. So after a while (my friend had about 600 mls) the bearings just run dry and brake. According to our dealer, only a few 2005 models are affected. No idea how to find out which ones. But it could be, that someone knows what serial numbers are affected.

 

where in germany? i was a cobra helicopter crewchief stationed at geibelstadt airfield for two years, about 12 clicks from wurzburg, ever been to the green goose in frankfurt? or the one in wurzburg? or the rock palast in wurzburg?

 

Hi, in fact it is not to far from Würzburg, it is pretty close to Munich. The places you have been I have never been by myself, but I heard about it. It is enough in Munich to go out. And there are all the wonderfull mountains, which are my favorite place to ride the DS.

 

it happened on my2000 it cooked the paint right off the swing arm I put zirk fittings one each side and put two acsess holes in the swing arm so I can grease mine before each ride it works slick,you just have to mark the carrier so when you install the zirks they line up with the acsess holes without having to pivot the axle

 

IMO, zerk fittings are not the answer. It may give you piece of mind, but it's really not helping things.

The only and proper way to maintain the bearings in the ds is to remove, clean and repack the bearings. You can pack your bearing carrier with all the grease you want, but unless it's engineered to direct the grease evenly into the bearings, and allow a place for the old grease to go (along with any water that has intruded into the carrier) it won't do squat for reliability. You will still have pockets any contaminates that have intruded into the bearing carrier. If nothing else, you are likely to blow out your seal(s) which will allow all kinds of contaminates to get in and ruin your bearings, carrier and possibly the axle.

Do youself a favor and don't shortcut the maintanance.

 

we used to fly down to the range in fulda to the range, have you ever been to im not sure if it is spelled right but grafenvier? when all the american reserves came over for reforger every year, there was always these huge wild boars with huge tusks hanging out of their mouths, you ever see them? damn this would always chase me and i had to jump up on the side of the helicopter to get away from them lol