Relative bearing is a nautical term used for rough calculation of your position at sea when there are no landmarks to guide you. 0 degrees is straight ahead, 90 degrees to your immediate right, 180 directly behind, and so on. Match relative bearings to points of the compass and though you may not know exactly where you are, you'll have an idea of which way to go to get where you want to be.
Relative bearing grease, however, is a fool's errand, a joke played on a dink (Dirty New Kid), boot or newbie. It doesn't exist obviously, except as a entertaining prank played on someone not savvy enuf to know better -- "Seaman Apprentice Smith, go below and fetch a bucket of relative bearing grease -- Aye, aye, sir !." I was amusing myself with these thoughts while attempting to thread my freshly greased axle thru all of the pieces that fit on it during reassembly after intalling new bearings -- a chore I wouldn't wish on my worst.enemy, now that I've been there, done that. If you haven't had the pleasure, here's what it's like: The cryptic instructions in the manual make it sound straight forward -- "Remove this, remove that. Installation is in the reverse order of removal." Sounds easy enough. I can do this...and it was, even though some pieces fell off and rolled away when I pulled the axle bolt out. But I retrieved those and put them in a can. Getting the wheel out from between the forks and from under the fender was a bit fiddly, But I managed that too. Then began the torture. I had read up on bearing removal on every website I could Google and knew going in that getting the bearings out of their little cocoons was going to be problematic. But I figured to beat the odds with this nifty tool from Harbor Freight called the Blind Hole Bearing Remover (on sale for 29 bucks -- what a deal if it saves some aggravation!). You insert this tool into the inner race of the bearing, then tighten a bolt, which causes some magic fingers on the other end to expand and hook the inside of the race. You then attach a slide hammer (kinda like a body shop dent puller) to the bolt and whang on it till the bearing comes out. Simple, no? Not. The bolt kept coming out of the race without budging the bearing. I'm thinking I have the wrong size bolt, so I upgrade to the next -- then the next -- (there are 4 sizes in the kit. The fourth one's too big). Still no joy. I'm working outside. It's hot. It's muggy. It's getting dark. And I'm getting frustrated. So I wrap it up, go have a beer and decide to go at it again in daylight. Next morning I see the cause of the problem. There's a spacer in there, looks like a piece of plumber's pipe about 3 inches long. Manual calls it a "distance collar." I call it some other names. It's same diameter as the bearing race, and it's up tight against the race, so it's preventing my magic fingers from getting a purchase on the bearing. And due to years of 60 ft/lb of torque, some crystallized old grease and a little rust.-- it's in there solid! I experiment with some homegrown ways of dislodging it and moving it to the side. The method that finally worked was a sharp cold chisel, held at an angle and my favorite persuader -- a short-handled 3 lb. sledge. The chisel dug into the soft metal of the spacer and moved it aside just a little. That was enough that two of the four magic fingers could grip enough of the bearing and pull it out far enough for all 4 fingers to grab it. Whanged on the slide hammer some more and out it came. Now had access to the other bearing and that one was child's play. Keep in mind that I have been beating on this damn thing and cussing it for hours. Not knowing what to expect once I opened up the assembly, I had bought all new OEM parts for the job. Some I didn't need, but used anyway, just so I would have spanky new parts and reassembly would be a breeze. I don't know where I get my optimism. Must be from my mother, who's never picked up a wrench in her life. There are 7 items that must kept in alignment in order for the axle to slide into place. Two are slippery characters, now that they're freshly lubed and know that you have your hands (and feet) occupied, trying to balance the wheel and keep the forks from flopping side to side. One's the damnable spacer, the instigator of our previous troubles. It's no longer "welded" in place, but slip-sliding around inside the hub. The other is it's frisky buddy, the "side collar," which is a short spacer that goes on outside the hub between it and the right fork. Get one lined up and the other wants to move out of alignment. Once I got the inside spacer speared and lined up, the axle would catch an edge of the outside spacer and knock it on the ground. Whenever that happened (6 times!) it was all-stop, retrieve the little bastard, wipe it down, re-grease, and start over. To say this is fiddly would earn you the Understatement of The Year award. Finally,solved the problem with another homegrown solution -- I shoved the old axle into the fork from the opposite side, corralled the troublesome spacer and held it in place while I tapped the new axle through. Finishing up was just like the book says. Torque this, torque that, reattach the caliper and the speedo cable and go for a ride. And it works (!) If you've read this far, you're probably contemplating doing this job yourself. You have my sympathy. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Nighthawk Motorcycle Lovers!" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/nighthawk_lovers?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
