Hitchcocks Forum

I started a new thread as a spin off from my query on sprocket bearings, as it's about the wheel bearings on Enfields.

So, as i mentioned in the other thread We found the bearing on the outer side of the rear wheel was not a tight fit in its recess and so the bearing was just slopping around basically useless. So a replacement wheel was obtained from our hosts from their special offer stock (many thanks to the helpful attitude and service at Mr h's spares counter). Today I had time to fit the new bearings in the new wheel as they come minus bearings. And I discover the same issue with the nearside wheel bearing, The bearing simply "drops" into the hole with no force at all required to press it in. I suspect there's a bit too much play to risk bearing lock compound to keep it from moving in its seat. Now 2 wheels with this fault may be a coincidence but I was wondering how common this is? I did a bit of back searching on this forum and found a couple of posts referring to slack wheel bearings and one advice to try using "Liquid steel" which I assume is the same sort of stuff as the "Chemical metal" epoxy based repair compound that has metal powder mixed in the resin. Assuming that this will work, would I be able to drive the bearing out again in the future if it needed replacing? I'm minded to try it with the old wheel on the basis of nothing to lose. I'll be on the phone to our hosts sharpish tomorrow about the new wheel but if this is a common fault then I am sure others would like to know how to tackle it. Of course a good machinist could probably turn up a sleeve to repair the oversize recess and bore out the existing hole carefully as there ain't a lot of metal there to play with. But the rest of us "mortals" haven't the skills or equipment to do this.

I actually like riding the 500 EFI B5, it is very comfortable and I can see how as a solo it could munch the miles at a nice steady 55 to 60 mph with the less restricting silencer and maybe a 18T engine sprocket to drop the revs out of the "tingle" band. But How much work does it need to make it decently reliable within its performance envelope?
Andy.

Have you got a mix of English and metric sizes? If you are trying to fit one with the other they usuall either wont go in, or drop in. Is the wheel for a Reditch bike or an Indian one? Have you got english or metric bearings?

Indian bullet, 500EFI, 6203 2RS bearings. It's bad machining end of story. One side nicely tight for press in bearing, the other too large so the bearing drops in. Our hosts have kindly without quibble sent me out another replacement wheel that they have checked for bearing clearance. So it would seem to be another instance of poor QC in India. I reckon the original wheel may well have been faulty in the same way and assembled in the factory with the fault waiting to show its hand along the way.

It's an interesting contrast with a pair of after-market wheels I recently bought as a pair from India. The fit of the rear bearings was pretty good, but the front one was extremely tight both sides, so that even with heating up the hub to expand the housing a bit and using C3 clearance bearings, Once the hub had cooled down the bearings were nipped up so tight that the inner race would hardly turn. A little relief of the bearing housings with a VERY brief spin of a brand new 40mm flap wheel and a set of 6203 C4 clearance bearings would let the inner races turn freely enough to use.



A.