Bearings not staying in the seat

Jon

Hi All,
I’m having a problem with bearings moving out of place in my SPF wheels which puts the bearings out of alignment causing the wheels spin badly. This usually happens when doing coping tricks when there’s pressure put onto one wheel. Eg. feeble grinds/stalls. The only way to fix it is to remove the bearings and re-seat them in the wheel. I’ve had this happen with every SPF wheel I’ve used, both 84B and 81B. I’ve tried running the wheels loose without spacers, tight with spacers, with and without speed rings…..no luck. It’s actually worse when I run the wheels tight with spacers because when it goes the wheel will jam and not spin at all.
Has anyone else experienced this problem and come up with a possible fix?

brigade_bill

maybe a manufacturer defect somewhere or bearing is too small hell maybe the bearing isnt even put all the way in

WakeInFright

There is a YouTube vid you can watch, talking about this type of problem. I agree with them when they say that bearing spacers should always be used. The problem they say( I don't agree with them on this one, as I haven't experienced it yet personally ) is that bearing manufacturers and wheel manufacturers, such as Bones, have lines that fall out of tolerance, one way or another. So say the centre bit of the wheel where the spacer sits may be cast to shallow, and the spacer of the bearings you have bought is too deep, and voilà, you get your dilemma. I will reiterate that I have bought many Bones product and have yet to experience it, with or without other Bones product!

Jon

Thanks fellas. Do you have a link to that video Wake?

I may not have explained this problem clearly. I can seat the bearings in perfectly, all the way into the wheel, but the outer bearing will sometimes "walk" back out of the seat and jamb against the wheel nut. I have had some skates when it doesn't happen, particularly in big bowls where I don't hit the coping as much as the small stuff. But as soon as I start hitting coping I end up with a cocked wheel. Before you ask, it's not axle slip.
I have set the wheels up with spacers, the right way with wheel nuts all tight and the wheels spinning well, but the bearings will still shift if one wheel takes a hit or is put under a lot of side load.
I don't have this problem with Spiitfire wheels, but I prefer rolling on Bones.

brigade_bill

u can find the video on youtube under the rat vision channel

WakeInFright

What Biebs said @Jon !

Rem

@Jon Did you find a solution to this? I've had the same problem with all the wheels I've used - stfs, spfs, and rictas. Have also tried lots of different things, but nothing seems to really help

brigade_bill

super glue jk

realcoyote

I know this is an old thread but I’ve been dealing with the same problem for a while and can’t figure out any solution. Anyone?

brigade_bill

there is a possible solution above

JackBurton

The only thing I can think of is the spacers are too long, so the bearings are not contacting both inside walls of the wheel. This would allow the wheel to shift back and forth on the outer rings of the bearings.

I would take the spacers out, reinstall the wheels/bearings on the axle, tighten the wheels up to seat the bearings, remove the wheel, and then measure the inside distance between bearings.

An easier way (but not as accurate) is to measure the inside dimension of the wheel, and size your spacer length a few thou under that dimension; to allow for compression of the urethane.

There are numerous ways to get these measurements but the cheapest/easiest way is probably a set of calipers and a flat surface, like a kitchen countertop.

Wheelbyte

wrong thread