axle/wheel bearing question

[corwin06]

my friend just bought a z 400 after seeing how reliable and badass my kfx was. anyways after he bought it he wiggled the back right wheel and noticed that there was about a half inch of play. so right away we assumed like on a car that the wheel bearing was bad. he is all paranoid and thinks it will fall off when he is doing 70 and will no longer touch it, i keep telling him to ride it a bit and get it fixed in the near future. i was just wondering if it is true that the wheel will fall off or how big of a problem this really is. thanks.

[Scro]

If you ride on axle bearings that are shot, you run the risk of destroying the carrier. The wise thing to do is replace them before riding it.

[corwin06]

the carrier? sorry for my ignorance but is that like stripping the axle or the teeth that go into the bearing? i really have never taken my axle off or anything

[Scro]

The carrier is what the bearings are installed into. If you let the bearings get bad enough, they will come apart inside the carrier, and cause all kinds of damage to it. When this happens, it's also been known to destroy the axle as well.

[corwin06]

alright i will let him know. does he just need to change the bearing and this problem will be corrected?

[Scro]

I would check the nuts that hold the rear hubs on first. It could just be that you are feeling the hubs move, and not the axle. If the hubs are tight, it has to be the carrier bearings. The best way to tell where the play is at, is to get the wheels off the ground. That should help you isolate the problem.

[corwin06]

alright ill go check it out right now... thanks for the help :D

[711stretfighter]

I'd say change them it's not hard mechanically. The previous owner of my z broke the carrier from letting the bearings go, so ride at your own expense. He couldn't afford to fix it and I got it dirt cheap. But anyways it's easy to change it just takes some muscle to get it off. I use a 18" pipe wrench and 4 ft cheater bar made of iron pipe to bust it loose with my buddy holding the rear brake pedal down and standing on it. Or I strap the wheels down to my trailer with tie downs which actually works better.
Getting the bearings out of the carrier can be a pain too. Just use some finesse with the hammer and chisel so you don't bust the carrier it's not the strongest thing in the world. Or you can use a slide hammer and a three leg puller from autozone to get it out without pulling the carrier from the swingarm.
Check out this link for the bearing prices and where to get them locally from when I did mine.
http://www.suzukicentral.com/forums/17-maintenance-repairs-tuning/78480-wheel-axle-bearing-p-s.html

[cataway]

when you replace the bearing make sure the bearing seals are on both sides of each bearing , then next spring get your self a hypodermic needle and a grease gun and put more new grease in to them

[corwin06]

alright thanks for the advice were gonna rip it apart tomorrow and wait for the bearing to come in

[corwin06]

i got another question, how is the dynatech cdi?how much is it? does it make your four wheeler un reliable? whats the difference between dynatech and the big gun box?