rebelpacket Posted June 8, 2011 Share Posted June 8, 2011 2003 V11 Sport Sunny day, on a weekend ritual ride with my girlfriend. 80 miles to our favorite pie place, following the Gallatin river towards Yellowstone park. On the way back, I started to feel a slight rhythmic vibration from the rear end. I slow down a bit, flip over the visor, try to isolate any sounds. Pull over and check the driveshaft for any slop in the joints or the connection. Decide to limp it home, very. slowly. Get about five blocks from home, when the vibration turns really bad. Pull over immediately, and start checking everything again. Thats when I spot this: Bearing race has completely collapsed. We walk the five blocks home, get the truck and park it at my shop. New bearings in without a problem, but I'm concerned about why it happened with only 8,000 miles on the odometer. I've never seen a wheel bearing (especially on a street bike) fail with so few miles. I'm worried (looking at how the bearing is preloaded from the rear caliper mount. The area contacting the bearing appears to be greater than the inside race, and possibly contacting the outer seal. Has anyone else had anything like this happen on their V11 sport? Also, does anyone know where you can buy a center stand for these bikes nowadays? I find myself having to do ridiculous things to lift and support the rear of this bike: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baldini Posted June 8, 2011 Share Posted June 8, 2011 Had rear wheel been out immediately prior to this happening? Some V11Sports have had brake side bearing fail when spacer between bearings is too short - typically after having wheel out (I believe it can be compressed when tightening axle nut). Did you check that spacer was a snug fit to new bearings? Should be light interference fit between inner races. If not, misaligned races will fail quickly - I had replacement bearing go within a couple of miles when I had this issue. KB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thumper Posted June 8, 2011 Share Posted June 8, 2011 My bearings went at 12,000 on the left side rearwheel. From the looks of the bearings, water had got in and did them in. I think it is when the bike is washed then leaned on the side stand the rust and evidence of water was on the left side.Check ebay you may beable to find a shop stand for the bike, they work fine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guzzi2Go Posted June 8, 2011 Share Posted June 8, 2011 I had RWB fail after some 5000km. Had the spacer checked and it checked out OK (so I was told). However, two things were out of spec: 1) Axle nut was tightened hard (90-100Nm). The service manual specifies 30Nm, which is claimed to be ridiculously low, so there is an ongoing dispute if this is a misprint or not. 2) Torque arm bushings needed replacing. Not sure if any of these things had anything to do with bearing failure, but at least according to the mechanic, neither did the spacer. I have to wait for the bearing to fail again (or for the wheel to come off) before I can report on some real experience. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom M Posted June 8, 2011 Share Posted June 8, 2011 I don't know if a centerstand is still available from Moto International or elsewhere but they do sometimes turn up on ebay. I use the Moto Guzzi shop stand to jack my bike for wheel removal. It's simple to use and it works well. http://www.v11lemans.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=2356 There have been lots of threads here on left side wheel bearing failures. I don't know why yours went out at such a low mileage (water infiltration from pressure washing?), but if the spacer that KB mentioned is OK I'd suggest that you just check all of the wheel bearings every time you have a wheel off for a tire change. I changed my front and rear wheel bearings as soon as I felt any roughness when turning them with the wheel off so I wouldn't end up stranded when they failed completely. I think I did the rear at around 15k miles and the front at about 25k. You also might want to consider servicing your cush drive the next time you have the rear wheel off. http://www.v11lemans.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=11820 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rebelpacket Posted June 8, 2011 Author Share Posted June 8, 2011 I've only put about 3,000 miles on the bike. The previous owner had replaced the tires around 5,000 miles or so, so that was the last time that I *know* that the wheel was off, prior to this failure. Given the nylon locking nut on the rear, and the way the bearings are contacted, 30nm seems pretty good by me. Even with that, there is a tremendous amount of preload on these bearings. I'm going to clean everything up and put it back together with 30nm, and see how it fares this time around. Thanks for all the input everyone, I really appriciate it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gstallons Posted June 8, 2011 Share Posted June 8, 2011 Where did you purchase the bearings? You have to buy the best quality part you can find. All the prefix and suffix characters on a bearing mean something. Just don't hop into a parts supply and get a 307ff bearing. You have to look on the dust shield (if it is an original part) and make sure you get a comparable part........... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Olivier Posted June 8, 2011 Share Posted June 8, 2011 I don't know if a centerstand is still available from Moto International or elsewhere but they do sometimes turn up on ebay. I use the Moto Guzzi shop stand to jack my bike for wheel removal. It's simple to use and it works well. http://www.v11lemans.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=2356 There have been lots of threads here on left side wheel bearing failures. I don't know why yours went out at such a low mileage (water infiltration from pressure washing?), but if the spacer that KB mentioned is OK I'd suggest that you just check all of the wheel bearings every time you have a wheel off for a tire change. I changed my front and rear wheel bearings as soon as I felt any roughness when turning them with the wheel off so I wouldn't end up stranded when they failed completely. I think I did the rear at around 15k miles and the front at about 25k. You also might want to consider servicing your cush drive the next time you have the rear wheel off. http://www.v11lemans.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=11820 I bought last week online, from MG cycle the workshop stand for the V11. They still have some in stock: http://www.mgcycle.com/product_info.php?products_id=1567 Olivier Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rebelpacket Posted June 8, 2011 Author Share Posted June 8, 2011 Where did you purchase the bearings? You have to buy the best quality part you can find. All the prefix and suffix characters on a bearing mean something. Just don't hop into a parts supply and get a 307ff bearing. You have to look on the dust shield (if it is an original part) and make sure you get a comparable part........... I ordered the replacement bearings from MG Cycle. The suffix characters we're off from the stock (polish made) bearings. The replacements we're made in bulgaria. I checked the dimensions with a set of electronic calipers. Straight match. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
docc Posted June 9, 2011 Share Posted June 9, 2011 30 Nm is the torque specification for an 8mm fastener. I would think that shockingly low for an axle. My 2000 Sport Workshop manual calls for 120 Nm, which I've used for these years with no troubles. 30Nm? Scary . . . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grossohc Posted June 9, 2011 Share Posted June 9, 2011 30 Nm is the torque specification for an 8mm fastener. I would think that shockingly low for an axle. My 2000 Sport Workshop manual calls for 120 Nm, which I've used for these years with no troubles. 30Nm? Scary . . . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baldini Posted June 9, 2011 Share Posted June 9, 2011 As Docc says, workshop manual gives 120Nm .... but measured at: Rear wheel spindle screw (housing side) I understand this to mean that 120Nm is to be measured at axle head, not at nut. I don't get this - shouldn't torque figure be same measured at either end or is there some friction in assembly that affects reading? It doesn't greatly matter to me, I just do nut up good & tight & since fitting correct length spacer have not had problems, but I'm curious as to why they spec side? Anyone? KB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HaydnR Posted June 9, 2011 Share Posted June 9, 2011 The owners manual states: "The torque of the nut «A» is 12 Kgm" 12 kilogram meter = 117 newton meter = 86 pound foot Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gstallons Posted June 9, 2011 Share Posted June 9, 2011 Where did you purchase the bearings? You have to buy the best quality part you can find. All the prefix and suffix characters on a bearing mean something. Just don't hop into a parts supply and get a 307ff bearing. You have to look on the dust shield (if it is an original part) and make sure you get a comparable part........... I ordered the replacement bearings from MG Cycle. The suffix characters we're off from the stock (polish made) bearings. The replacements we're made in bulgaria. I checked the dimensions with a set of electronic calipers. Straight match. The base # will give you the same dimension bearing. Read my post again. The prefix and or suffix characters describe tolerances and bearing speed specs, etc.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guzzi2Go Posted June 9, 2011 Share Posted June 9, 2011 The owners manual states: "The torque of the nut «A» is 12 Kgm" 12 kilogram meter = 117.679 8 newton meter = 86.796 165 98 pound foot Where? Uploaded with ImageShack.us Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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