A
I decided to do some sprocket swapping on my kit and figured since I had most of the kit taken apart that I might as well replace the bearings (4 of them). I did quite a bit of shopping around and found that buying them online was the way to go but they can be found at the local parts house if you want to drop over $20/bearing on the SKF's, I also found a budget bearing locally that had plastic seals for under $5 but without a rubber seal I don't see them lasting long. I ended up buying 8 - SKF 6205 2RSJ bearings off ebay for a total of $35 shipped to my door, I figured for that price I might as well buy extra.
I don't know what the quality of the KOYO bearings are that came in the Mountain Horse kit but I am betting they are not top quality. Two of the bearings I pulled rolled ok without a load on them but they did not role smoothly, the other two seemed ok but with the kit apart I wanted to do all of them. Prior to installing the SKF bearings I went ahead and pulled the rubber seals and packed them with a good waterproof grease, I am hoping they last many seasons.
I did run into a few issues tracking down the bearings, turns out nobody stocks or even cross-references KOYO bearings so the 6205RD that is on the bearings will get you squat. The 6205 is for the bearing dimensions which are 52mm outside dia., 25mm inside dia., and 15mm thick and the last two letters are for the type of seal. I think those last two letters vary between manufacturers so just make sure it's a rubber sealed bearing.
This was not my first time pulling the chain case sprockets off but it was the first time I did it with a puller and I highly recommend dropping the $50 and buying a three jaw puller. I bought mine from Sears and it will do a two or three jaw pull which was good because pulling the bearing carriers didn't allow room for the third jaw. The previous time I pulled the chain case sprockets I used a propane torch some big flat head screw drivers and a claw hammer to get the sprockets off, it was not pretty and swear words were spoken. The drive setup on these kits could have been done so much better I get pissed every time I take it apart but I don't have a machine shop at my disposal so I will live with it for now. I removed the drive sprocket using the puller as well and then proceeded to dismantle the rest of the kit. After you remove all of the sprockets and the brake caliper and the rotor and the drive shaft and all the bearings basically nothing is attached to the subframe anymore. After getting everything off of the kit I took some sand paper to the drive shaft and sanded the whole thing down so that the sprockets, spacers and bearings can be slid on instead of having to press them on and use a puller to get them off. The track shaft also required some sanding on one end to get the bearing to slide on but the other side didn't have any clearance issues. I put anti seize on everything so hopefully I won't have issues taking it apart next time.
Hopefully this will help some of you out when it comes your time to tear it apart.
I don't know what the quality of the KOYO bearings are that came in the Mountain Horse kit but I am betting they are not top quality. Two of the bearings I pulled rolled ok without a load on them but they did not role smoothly, the other two seemed ok but with the kit apart I wanted to do all of them. Prior to installing the SKF bearings I went ahead and pulled the rubber seals and packed them with a good waterproof grease, I am hoping they last many seasons.
I did run into a few issues tracking down the bearings, turns out nobody stocks or even cross-references KOYO bearings so the 6205RD that is on the bearings will get you squat. The 6205 is for the bearing dimensions which are 52mm outside dia., 25mm inside dia., and 15mm thick and the last two letters are for the type of seal. I think those last two letters vary between manufacturers so just make sure it's a rubber sealed bearing.
This was not my first time pulling the chain case sprockets off but it was the first time I did it with a puller and I highly recommend dropping the $50 and buying a three jaw puller. I bought mine from Sears and it will do a two or three jaw pull which was good because pulling the bearing carriers didn't allow room for the third jaw. The previous time I pulled the chain case sprockets I used a propane torch some big flat head screw drivers and a claw hammer to get the sprockets off, it was not pretty and swear words were spoken. The drive setup on these kits could have been done so much better I get pissed every time I take it apart but I don't have a machine shop at my disposal so I will live with it for now. I removed the drive sprocket using the puller as well and then proceeded to dismantle the rest of the kit. After you remove all of the sprockets and the brake caliper and the rotor and the drive shaft and all the bearings basically nothing is attached to the subframe anymore. After getting everything off of the kit I took some sand paper to the drive shaft and sanded the whole thing down so that the sprockets, spacers and bearings can be slid on instead of having to press them on and use a puller to get them off. The track shaft also required some sanding on one end to get the bearing to slide on but the other side didn't have any clearance issues. I put anti seize on everything so hopefully I won't have issues taking it apart next time.
Hopefully this will help some of you out when it comes your time to tear it apart.
