250-500cc Front wheel bearing change: 1999 WR250

Pulled the font wheel off today. The front wheel bearings need to be replaced. I really had to whale on the axle with a mallet to get it off... Bunch of rust and bone dry in there. New bearings and seals are on order. I was hoping to find instructions on how to change the front wheel bearing in my owners manual but found NOTHING. Did a quick search on this site and only found info on aftermarket vs oem bearings. I'm looking for a how to or DIY for changing out the front bearings and seals. Can anyone help?

It's pretty easy.

Clean out the crap.

Maybe heat the hub...not the bearing...with a torch if you have one...not necessary though.

get a brass punch and cock the inner spacer to one side so you can tap out the existing worn bearings out side to side until the come out. Don't hammer too much on one side as they will cock in there and maybe even break the hub if you go gorilla....even smacks on both sides to walk them out.

Drop out the inner spacer after the 1st bearing comes out and do the other side.

Put new bearings in freezer to shrink them.

Clean the hub surfaces and again heat the bearing races if you have a torch.

Take a socket just smaller enough to fit into the wheel hub race and use these to tap the cold bearing in with a plastic mallet. Done right they all but fall in.

The trick is never to tap on the inner race of a beairng unless you are going to through it away....tap outer race only.

R-Little! Thanks for the reply, although I read it just a little too late...I got into it today and took some pics. It was a real Sh*t Show inside my hub. Looked like the guy I bought if from had never serviced the front hub. It was bone dry and full of rust. I didn't have any directions at the time, but did everything as you mentioned above, EXCEPT I tapped on the inner race of both bearings fairly hard. AM I SCREWED? Everything went back together ok and the wheels seems to spin fine.

Before:





After:





Looks like there was some rust damage to the inside of the hub. Should I be worried about this? Looks like the axle just makes contact with the bearings and the spacer, so the pitting inside the hub should NOT affect the performace of the bearings/hub.....but only affect the potential integrety/strength of the hub?

I guess next I'll have to tear into the rear hub, because if the fron hub was this bad, god knows what the rear is like!!!

Any tips on getting into the rear hub?

Sorry for this last greenhorn question....but what does the cable that runs down the riders right hand side of my fork go to? The Cable connects to a piece the axle runs through. I put some grease in there when putting the wheel back on and now Im thinking I should NOT have.....I greased between the inside of this mystery piece.

The cable is the speedometer cable. The rear should have 3 bearings, remove circlip first, then same as above.

If you hammered on the inside race of the new bearings when putting them in there are .small flat spots on the balls, which will cause them to fail more quickly. If it were me I would order up a new set to have on hand, run the ones that are in there but keep a close eye on them for any sign of failure. If I had a long trip and wasn't just trail riding relatively close to the truck they would be replaced.

Thanks for the info guys! I'll put a second set on order... Any signs of wear I should look out for?

Also....I'm assuming that greasing the speedo was ok?

Greasing the speedo is a good thing.
The other thing you might think about is popping the seals out of the new bearings, blow what little grease they have in them out and replace it with a generous amount of good water proof grease like Belray.
I try to change (at least check) the grease in the wheel bearings at every tire change.

got the rear wheel off today...the rear bearings don't look as bad. I ordered a new kit from Hall's anyways. Going to change them out too. Same process i assume?

There's 3 bearings in rear. Remove circlip first (sprocket side I think) then knock big bearing out that side. Then go after other 2.

That looks like a threaded collar retainer?

Not sure what ^that is? Can you explain?

Those 4 indents in that silver ring are, I believe, to fit a tool to unscrew that piece from the threaded hub. It may not have a C clip, but that instead, or maybe both? I'd try giving that a twist counter clockwise to see if it unscrews. Someone here must know for sure. Does it move at all?

That is a retaining collar as opposed to a C clip. I usually look at Halls on-line parts fiche and go from there. Also see if it shows a special tool for removal of that, or time to improvise.

That's what I though. They sure went to a lot of trouble to do that! LOL!

Any thoughts on how to get that out?

Turn it, like a nut. If you have a shop, you might be able to grind/weld a socket like fitting with pins to fit in 2 or all 4 of the slots. You can try light tapping with a drift too, but don't let it deform!

Got it off! Used a large punch and a hammer to tap it loose. The rear bearings are not AS bad as the front, but I'm gonna go ahead with the swap. Got the retaining collar and 2 bearings out on the the sprocket side. Have not been able to get the bearing on the rotor side out yet. Is there a collar on that side? It looks like there is some sort of collar but it's missing the 4 slots the other collar had, so there is no way for me to get leverage on it to tap it out. Update and more pics to come.....