Just picked up a 2000 XR650L. I went to change the rear bearing seals and found this chunk of aluminum!

It doesn't look stock, can anyone provide some info?



thanks,

John

It's stock. Welcome to Honda engineering. It's called a bearing retainer and it is threaded into the hub.

You have three basic choices.

• Get the proper tool. Motion Pro makes one.
  
• Make your own tool.
  
• Beat on it with a punch or drift and a hammer

I did the drift method the first time and made myself a tool for the second time. Using a drift kind of tears it up.

Thanks.

I have a XR650R also and the rear hub has a seal in it.

Has anyone adapted a rubber seal to the L, the design looks to allow a lot more dirt, water, etc into the hub. The steel spacer did not get along well with the al bearing retainer:bonk:

There is susposed to be a seal in the bearing retainer. It goes in from the inside of the retainer. I noticed that someone took a punch to the end of the retainer to keep it from backing off. That method will tear up the threads when you remove it. You might have to replace the retainer if it screws it up too bad. At a cost of about $21.00.


Ray

truck6driver said:

That is actually what the Honda manual tells you to do.

All the other methods I have seen say to carefully drill out the punched spots(not too much, though, or it's new hub time! $$$!) so the retainer doesn't get shredded. They also say to punch it again upon reinstallation. I wasn't about to do that, so I used blue removable Loctite instead. I really hate that retainer design...

I also highly recommend getting double-sealed bearings, not the single-sealed bearings that Honda uses and sells. The doubles will do a better job of keeping grease in and crud out.

DO NOT USE A HAMMER OR PUNCH, I decintergrated mine in my 600 doing it that way, dont be a tight ass and buy the propper tool or make one, it will save you loads of hassle in the end, and make sure you clean and lube the threads before re-install or you will strip the hub and/or retainer as I almost did...

HeadTrauma said:

:thumbsup: :thumbsup:

Drilling out the punched spots is the solution for a clean exit.It will also make it easy to put it back in.
Just a note on doing the double sealed bearings,pop a seal off and add a little more greese.The bearings come with very little greese in them.(cheap bass tards)

Just a head up, when you buy a bearing and seal kit, look for the ones that come with a bearing retainer. Some do, some don't.

Destroying a retainer when replacing bearings and haveing to order a new retainer and wait to ride is'nt fun.

Onederer said:

Yea +1 Trust me I know from experience with Honda stuffing me around for 6 weeks with my new one...