Carrier Bearing

[kaneman23]

I was pushing my 400ex in neutral and noticed it doesn't roll smoothly anymore. Its very hard to push compared to my brotherinlaws newer 400EX which rolls smoother than butter. I have the WB parking brake block off so PB is not the problem. I don't know what it could be other then the carrier bearings going bad. Maybe they are gummed up or something? There aren't any squeaking noises, so I don' t know what it could be. Anyone else have this problem?

[Ex'r Marlin]

1) Check tire pressure
2) Properly oil your chain and check for proper tension
3) While pushing, check to see if rear brake rotor is bent.
4) Either stand the atv up or lift front of atv up and check how freely the front tires rotate..... Is a front router binding up?
5) Note: If you have you front end toed in or toed out, that too will add some rolling resistance.
6) Prop rear swing arm up to where the rear tires are not touching the ground. loosen the chain tension and remove the chain off the rear sprocket. Put atv in neutral, and rotate the rear tires and feel for any resistance.

Hope this helps.

[kaneman23]

thanks for the advice. I will check it out this weekend... Thanks,
Justin

[oynot400]

It is not a bad idea just to take the axle and carrier out to clean it. Also pull your swing arm bolt and grease those bearings also!

[ChadEXer]

Put you a grease zerk in youre bearing carrier and fill that suck full of grease. my local shop will put grease zerks in for like $5

[Scott]

For your idea to work Chad, you have to remove the seal from the inner side of the bearing race. They are sealed bearings from the factory. Next problem is if you drill through the swingarm and carrier and run a grease zerk into it, you can no longer adjust your chain. It's not as easy to add a grease zerk to the carrier as it first seems.

[ChadEXer]

you would take the carrier out and put a zerk in it, not drill through the swingarm. Just like the aftermarket carriers are made. but the deal about the seals I dont know because this guy down the road says he puts zerks in stock carriers all the time!

[Scott]

The lonestar (I think it is) has the grease zerk near the chain adjuster. The drilled passage is kind of "L" shaped to get from the zerk to the center section of the carrier. It would be difficult to do that in your garage.

As for the bearings, they have an inner and outer seal on the bearings themselves, in addition to the seals that you replace on the outside of the bearings where they ride in the carrier. Normally you pop one of the seals off the bearing anyway to make sure there's plenty of grease in the bearing. Then pop the seal back on it and put the bearing in. So you could easily leave the seal off the inner side of the bearing, it's just getting the grease in there that's the challenge...

If you know of an easy way to do it, I'm all ears....

[oynot400]

The thing with greasing the carrier is you are not greasing the bearings, since they are a sealed bearing. All the grease is doing is keeping the water pushed out, which is bad for your bearings. Putting a grease zerk on the stock carrier is a good idea, I wish that I would of done it and saved myself about $200!

[Scott]

But where would you go about putting it so that you are actually getting grease inside the stock carrier, and still not affecting the movement of the carrier inside the swingarm? A couple of us talked about this before, but no one had an answer.

[ChadEXer]

My meachanic puts the zerk in the very center of the carrier then shoots grease in it till it oozes out the seals on the side. i watched him do it to another guys!! Like the Rad carriers, the zerk is in the very middle of the carrier if you were holding it in youre hand!

[Scott]

How does that clear the swingarm? Both when you install the carrier, and after it's installed. I've seen guys try to put the zerk into the carrier thru the bolt hole in the bottom center of the swingarm. Didn't have the desired affect. As long as you didn't have to move the carrier to tighten your chain, it worked great.

For that matter, why couldn't you elongate the existing bolt hole that I just mentioned, and let the zerk ride in that slot as the carrier was rotated to tighten the chain?

[Ex'r Marlin]

Originally posted by ChadEXer
Like the Rad carriers, the zerk is in the very middle of the carrier if you were holding it in youre hand! :huh
My Rad carrier (Recreations Unlimited) has the grease zerk mounted on top of the carrier overtop where the left bearing is. Mine has the "L" shape drilled passage to get to the center of the carrier.

I could be wrong, but I think there may be enough room to allow a grease zerk to be mounted on the center section of the carrier and not interfere with the swingarm. If you had a pilot hole drilled through your swingarm, you could rotate the carrier until they lined up to do your maintenance. Then you would have to properly set your chain tension once you were done.

Question: Is this modification effective if you are using sealed bearings?

[Scott]

You would have 2 choices.

1 filling the void with grease to try to prevent water from getting in, and still have the sealed bearings even if it did.

Or

2 remove the inner seal from the bearing, then the grease would be able to get to the bearing. But so would any water and crud.

Next thing is that when you pump it full of grease until it starts to squirt out, you just pressed the outer seals out of place, so yes it's full of grease, but you also just created another place for crud to get in. Catch 22.

[ChadEXer]

he pumps the grease very slow so it doesnt mess up the seal is what he told me cause i asked him about that seal thing, but with the zerk in the middle of the carrier there is enough room for it not to interfere with the swingarm. I watched him drill the pilot hole, put in the zerk, and fill it with grease then install it in the swingarm.