DAMN Riders - No rules, Just ride!

So, this 300 I got from Bucho has got me scratching my head. What was supposed to be simple has turned complex and a little redneck.
Help me out if you can.

The back wheel was a little wiggly and without really looking at it I just figured it was the wheel bearings (as advertised).
I pulled the rear and had a local shop install the bearings, tube, tire. I gave it to my SIL to put back on, the bike is at his place. He called and said it was still "wiggly". I just figured he did something wrong. I went over to check it out, and yeah the wheel was slopping around, like the spacers didn't fit. I pulled the wheel and the spacers didn't go into the hub, they just acted like a fat washer, and there were gaps between spacers and swingarm.
WTF? I looked at everything twice, put it on/off/on?? I couldn't figure it out.

Fug it, I ordered new wheel spacers, fast forward and they fit the hub nicely, but now the wheel (with spacers) won't fit in the swing arm. It's like an 1/8 or 1/4 inch too wide. WTF?
Again, spent a lot of time double checking everything and it all seems right. I can only guess that with a bike this old that maybe some parts were swapped or Bucho really crashed it hard a few times

Our redneck engineering solution was to use ratchet strap to pull the swingarm apart and use a BFH to get the brake caliper in.
It works for now. Oddly the chain got really tight. Later on measure things and pull everything off and see if I can figure it out. We just wanted to ride it a little while the weather is good. I might just shave the spacers a little.

Any thoughts?

dirtygrunt wrote:Any thoughts?

don't buy bikes from Bucho?

Careful riding the bike as the additional pressure might eat the new wheel bearings. Measure the swingarm and have a machine shop cut the spacers down. Be sure to verify chain alignment when deciding how much to cut from a given spacer. Install the wheel w/o spacers (using axle) and align chain,then measure each side carefully for spacer dimension. Try with just one spacer at a time for chain alignment as you may only need to alter one of the spacers.

anotherguy wrote:Careful riding the bike as the additional pressure might eat the new wheel bearings. Measure the swingarm and have a machine shop cut the spacers down. Be sure to verify chain alignment when deciding how much to cut from a given spacer. Install the wheel w/o spacers (using axle) and align chain,then measure each side carefully for spacer dimension. Try with just one spacer at a time for chain alignment as you may only need to alter one of the spacers.

Yup. That's kinda the plan. We were at my SIL's so tools etc were at a premium today and I didn't have my truck to haul it home.

Kyler wrote:

dirtygrunt wrote:Any thoughts?

don't buy bikes from Bucho?

Dood it was a bargain
Pre crashed and everything.

did you look at a parts diagram yet?

juddspaintballs wrote:did you look at a parts diagram yet?

Yeah, when I ordered the new spacers. Everything looks right.

Just talking out loud here.
Does this wheel have 2 bearings on one side?
If not was it supposed to?
Does it have the C clip that holds the bearings in?
There is an aftermarket kit to upgrade to a larger wheel bearing, that also changes the spacer that goes in the hub between the bearings. Possible that you have mismatched parts from an earlier upgrade?

To me it sounds like you have the wrong wheel bearings. Need to reset and try again.

Good Luck.

Is the hub OEM? I believe there's a couple brands of hubs out there that use their own bearings slightly different than OEM, which would also have different spacers. Perhaps you have a mix of OEM and non-OEM parts without knowing it, or maybe the bearings you had put on were the wrong ones.

Seems like the bearings are not going in the hub all the way for whatever reason. Borrow another wheel off any KTM and see if it drops in, it should. I would not spread the swinger to make it work and you shouldn't have to shave down spacers unless it is a different hub and is slightly wider.