Breaking the rear axle nut

Hi,

so we have a 6th gen VFR 800 with a crushed rear axle bearing that needs replacing, but we can't seem to get open the hub.

We took a 46mm socket with a 3/4 drive 24" breaker bar and a 2' pipe over the end as a cheater bar... and broke the breaker bar. Just can't get that nut to budge. Is there a trick to this? yes we pulled out the retainer clip.

 

On of the member having same problem he have to use one of the special tool to press it out. I cannot remember the tools name but let me try to find the thread. He said he have to beat the crab out with the mallet

 

I found this
http://vfrworld.com/forums/mechanics-garage/39455-rear-bearings-86vfr700-need-help.html

Might want to shoot Toe or Tink a PM

 

Damn I wish I ask for a new bike. Talk about Tink and here he is

 

Sometimes things gall and you can't force them off with straight leverage, but banging on them with air tools beats things loose and they will come off. Try another 3/4" breaker and hit the end with a heavy dead blow mallet. More than once, I have switched from my breaker bar to a big ass impact and had things come apart nicely.

Jose

 

I presume you're talking about the bearing race? My problem is I can't get the nut off to even open the hub. We broke a breaker bar trying to free the nut. The swingarm is on the bike right now, and we basically put it in gear, had someone stand on the rear brake, and then put the breaker bar on horizontal so we were pressing down on it. Couldn't get it to budge, even with 4+ feet of leverage and nearly 200 lbs of force.

 

Yes, assuming it's not reverse threaded, we were doing it the right way

We didn't seem to have much trouble holding the wheel still (wheel on the ground, pushing down, in gear, standing on the brakes) but it wasn't going anywhere with the ~800 ft/lbs of torque that it took to bend out the end of the breaker bar. tried tapping with a mini sledge, too. I soaked it up with WD40 since I couldn't find my PB blaster. Might it be a good idea to rent a torch or impact set? or maybe just cut it off? I kinda want to avoid replacing unnecessary parts from damaging it though, especially expensive ones....

I suspect we may have issues with the axle bearing too, as it may be fused from the friction... don't know where to rent a slidehammer.

 

I whacked on the breaker bar a bit with a dead blow, but didn't want to wail on it too hard for fear of the breaker bar failing violently. I'll give it another go in the morning and really wail on it, otherwise will see about renting/borrowing an impact set, thanks.

 

Apply a little heat might help......Good luck

 

Sounds like what I go through every time I ask the wife for some of her money!

 

Comes right off with 3/4 inch gun.

 

Did you unstake the nut? I had the same problem until I unstaked the nut.

 

Yep, unstaked the nut...

roommate went out and bought a propane torch and ultra cheapo electric impact driver, heated it up and it came right off under the gun.

Then we just had to hammer on the axle with a deadblow to push it out, found pretty much all the bearings completely shattered inside. It was a scary looking mess. Think we'll just order an entire assembly all loaded and packed rather than replacing them individually.

 

Where is this 6th gen bike that the rear axle is in such sad shape? Is it all rusted? Any idea as to why it is in this shape? Maybe I will pull mine apart to make sure it is all OK.

 

It's in a desert climate, california, no rust or anything. No idea how it got as bad as it did, and it only had maybe 60k miles on it. The axle bearing just went out while we were riding on a long trip up the coast and the back wheel started wobbling. pulled off, trailered it home. Best guess is it might have gotten dirt in it through a bad seal or something when riding up an unpaved trail about 100 miles prior, and since we'd put a lot of miles on it in a short period of time it'd have a chance to get hot, especially if the grease was starting to dry up... still pretty fast for something like that to happen. To be quite honest it's making me paranoid about my 5th gen, and once we have these bikes back together and the spare bike is free, I'll probably pull and repack my own bearings just to be on the safe side.

 

Power tools FTW!!!

Jose

 

Hey folks, just wanted to give you an update. When we got the axle out, we found this:

After pulling out all the bits and pieces, we found the outer bearing wall solidly fused to the hub. Even after cutting a cross-section of the bearing with a dremel and heating it up with the torch we couldn't hammer the 'free' chunk out. We're going to have to order a whole new hub with all of the bearings and seals.

 

Yikes man. That is one ugly mess. Good thing you stopped when you did or there could have been much more dire consequences if the axle seized. How many miles were on the bike in question??