Thanks to the fine guys on this forum, I got the correct axle bearing and seals for my quad. After installing them, the wheels are very hard to turn. Let me tell you the procedure that I followed and maybe it will give you insight as to what I'm doing wrong.

1) backed off both the axle nuts, 2) Removed wheel, 3) Removed hub, chain and sprocket 4) removed brake assembly on right side, 5) used a wood block and hammer to drive out the axle, 6) installed a zerk fitting, 7) made sure fitting did not extend into the carrier and cleaned everything well, 8) re-installed the center pipe that I assume keeps the side load on the bearings down, 9) installed bearings and seals, 10) inserted axle through the carrier and bearings, 11) made a mistake and tried tightening the nuts with the sprocket on backwards, 12) turned sprocket back around and tightened very tightly, 13) filled it with grease.

I didn't notice when it stopped wanting to roll, but now it is very tight and difficult to turn the wheels by hand. Any suggestions as to what I did wrong?

Thanks,
Scott

 

how tight did you tighten the locknuts there is a torque spec on them

 

Take the grease zerk out to relieve some of the pressure caused by pumping it up with grease. after the excessive grease comes out , stick zerk back in. It should turn allot easier now. Same thing happened to a Kawaski Lakota that I changed the bearings in. Excessive grease puts too much side load on the bearings. Did you remove the "seals" from the bearings? That will allow the grease to pass thru the bearing easier.

 

Both of you confirmed my suspicions. Yes, I did remove the bearing seals, but no, I didn't go by torque spec. The guy at the local shop told me to get it as tight as I could.

It seems that my problem came from overtightening it and the pressure from the grease was pushing against the sproket causing friction as well.

I took out one of the seals to make sure that I hadn't damaged the bearings. I should be able to buy another seal and be back in business.

I've also got to look at the diagram of how they go in. It seems that they sold me 2 different seals, one for the right side and one for the left. Possibly I put them in opposite?

Thanks for your help.