Rear axle bearing slack

This pertains to the wheel vibrations I've posted about in New Tire Woes. I've discovered I have some slack in the rear wheel bearings. I placed a crow bar under the rear tire and pryed up. I got approx. 1/8" movement of the axle in the bearing assembly plus a slight clunk-clunk sound. Should there be any slack in this rear axle/bearing assembly? If not, I may have found my problems with my new tire vibrations. I spun the rear tire up on the center stand to approx. 95mph on the speedo and the vibration shook the whole bike. This could be what I'm feeling out on the interstate at higher speeds of 90+ mph. The whole while I was thinking bad tires. What say uins?

 

I always wanted to try that out, but visions of the back wheel touching down at triple digit speeds and catapollting the bike through the air kinda freak me out. I dont know how safe that is especially with vibration issues, but hey looks like you found the problem. Deffinetely sounds like the bearings need to be replaced, but I wouldnt rule out the tires either. All that shaking couldnt have been too good for them. After all's said and done I would look into getting them balanced, I would think that, that would increase the life of your new bearings.

 

Thanx all for your inputs and participation. After more scrutiny this afternoon I've determined it's not axle bearings after all. My son and I went over the rear axle assembly with the tire off. We pryed and pulled and rotated and couldn't find any slack in the bearings. What I was seeing and feeling were the damping pads cushioning the driven wheel as it's called. I'm so anxious to find the cause of the vibration I am jumping to conclusions. I've pulled both tires off the bike and am taking them to a different dealer tomorrow for another balance. I'll then test ride and see what happens, if it still vibrates I may take it to the dealer and just tell them to fix it, it's still under warranty.