Thursday 15 February 2018

Front Wheel Bearings - SQ4 Mk1

Here we have an Ariel front hub, with the half width brake. It's the one referred to by Draganfly as the 'Type 3' wheel. It's also the one that deposited that hub full of grease all over the first set of brake shoes I fitted to this bike...


So, this winter it is time for some new wheel bearings. The first job is to pop the cover off the bearing retainer with a large screwdriver:


The bearing retainer needs to be cleaned up and the gunge removed from the holes


This is the tool you use to remove the ring. Don't try and remove those soft brass rings without it...


Once the bearing retainers are out you can drift out the bearings and clean out all the old grease:


Ariel must have changed this hub once of twice, because the assembly described in the parts book and found in my hub does not match the illustration owners manual or in Mr. Waller's book. In my case, the brake side bearing rests on a 1/8" thick spacer in the hub, and has two 1/8" spacers attached to the ID of the bearing, one on each side. One is a top hat, and one a thick washer shown below. To replace the bearing you have to drift them apart, easily done in the vice with a socket:


The bearing is an RLS7 2RS, which is 2" OD, 7/8" ID and 9/16" thick with two soft seals. Easily obtainable on eBay


The non-brake side bearing is an RMS6 2RS which is 2" OD, 3/4" ID and 11/16" thick with two soft seals. It drifts straight into the hub with no extra spacers, followed by the brass bearing retaining ring which in this case was a bit mangled.


The new brake side bearing is easily reunited with its spacers, using another, slightly larger socket to rivet the two halves together again:


The 1/8" spacer goes in first:


Followed by the bearing assembly:


And the retaining ring, with its own retainer. the bearing retaining rings are not fitted with their seals, since these are not needed and seem to extrude into the space occupied by the spindle and the centre of the brake plate.


Job done. Time change the inner tube (it was a cheapo one which leaked slowly) and to refit the wheel.


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