Help needed rear wheel play.

[hughes]

Rebuilds/Restores on old bikes are fun but very expensive. I restored an 87 KX500 and spent around $3,500 bucks once it was all said and done. I enjoy the rebuild and loved riding the bike but it was still only worth maybe 1,000-1,500 bucks since it is still an old dirt bike to others. Hard to put price on the pride I had from the bike. I don't think I'll do another one. Have fun.

[serafin]

Take a sharp center punch and punch 6 divits inside the hub where the bearing will sit.  This will tighten the bearing inside the hub.  Combine this with Loctite Red.  I have used this technique with good results.  It all depends on how loose the bearing sits in the hub.

Serafin

[HodaddyB]

I hear ya, dude...........a lot of money to spend on an old bike. I considered having the bore built up w/ weld and re-machining it to the proper I.D. which may be worth a try.

I've used the green loctite to secure bearings in a drive adapter for the alternator on V-8 diesels. In fact I've even staked the bore as someone has mentioned too. The bearings still seemed to wear themselves loose despite looking and feeling pretty sweet when I got it all assembled. My bearings are loose enough that I can almost rattle them in the hub, so I don't think the staking and loctite will do the job.

I've also considered just trying to find ANY hub that I could obtain cheaply, and then fabbing up whatever adapter items may be necessary. Sorta like the idea behind the Excel Pro-Series wheels. I dunno, I still have some time to think about it before I get rolling on that project.

Couldn't hurt to try the loctite and staking............worse that'll happen is that it loosens up again.

[Charlie500]

i bought a set of RAD Wheels complete front and rear set for 550 bucks! that fully assembled with bearings and seals... its hard to beat that price. and you can get them in any color...

[HodaddyB]

Where ...........that IS a good deal.

[HodaddyB]

Hi Guys,
           I've just been to the RAD website, and their hubs (the Econo ones), are looking like the most economical way to replace a hub.

Recently, I measured the '87 KX hub from the mounting surface of the sprocket, to the mounting surface of the disc, and it measured around 5.875". I did this hoping to either find something close enough from one of my other bikes (I've got some supermoto hubs/wheels sitting around), and then be able use sprockets, discs etc. that I have, OR find something else w/ current availability.

To my chagrin, the KX has the narrowest hub of my (full-sized) fleet, by almost 1/8 of an inch. It's easy to add a spacer when moving to a wider swingarm, but I'm apprehensive (completely opposed, in fact) to turn down the mounting pads of a wider hub to accommodate the narrower set-up of the KX.

SO.......here's the question, Anybody measured the distance between mounting surfaces on the later hubs?

Thanks,
            HDB