Cush drive and bearings - Ducati.ms

strider3 · Nov 27th, 2011, 9:46 am

I removed my rear wheel for general cleaning and a bearing check. After installing a new bearing in the sprocket and a thorough cleaning I noticed I was missing a cush drive sleeve. It is the metal sleeve that lives inside the rubber bushing. I have been looking for it for days now and it is nowhere to be found. I should note that I have aftermarket wheels (Carrozzaria) but this should not matter since my question is whether I can go without it for now? It would seem that I should remove the opposite sleeve also and ride with four to balance things out. The wheel maker sells a replacement kit for $75 but mine look brand new and I do not feel like shelling that amount of money at this time.

Any one have a Ducati cush sleeve that they could measure so I can see if they are the same size?

Any inputs on this? Thanks all.

FYI I replaced my front bearings last week when I took my wheel off for a tire change and found the bearings to be completely shot. One would not even turn. The other had a deformed seal and basically no grease. There was a corresponding heat burn on my lightweight axle showing me that things were not turning well inside there. Bearings are now on my maintenance checklist to and change often and I now have the spares on the shelf. Carrozzaria told me that my new front axle bolt spec. is 40nm instead of the Ducati spec 80nm. I now recall having some weird steering issues lately and may have figured out why. FYI

mlukason · Nov 27th, 2011, 6:08 pm

I wouldn't remove another sleeve. The sleeve doesn't weight that much and the radius of the cush drive is pretty small. I doubt that you would be able to notice any imbalance like you would if the same amount of weight was located along the rim.

How many miles on the those front wheel bearings?

strider3 · Nov 28th, 2011, 6:51 am

Thanks for the reply. I emailed the wheel maker and asked them if they happen to have one of the sleeves laying around in a desk drawer. Hope they have one. I damaged one of the wheel rim stickers in the past and they sent me replacements so I have hope. If I have to put it back on the bike I will not bother trying to balance it out by removing the opposite one.

The bearings have about 18K on them and over 2 years so I think I may be asking a bit too much out of them to have had no maintenance by then. The rear bearings looked fine but I replaced them anyway.

Thanks.

Desmo_Demon · Nov 28th, 2011, 7:56 am

Quote:

Originally Posted by strider3

The bearings have about 18K on them and over 2 years so I think I may be asking a bit too much out of them to have had no maintenance by then.

I doubt you are "asking a bit too much out of them (bearings)", but I would check them as often as you can when the opportunity presents itself. I've had bearings without seal/water issues that have lasted 50k-75k without any issues on bikes. Heck, the wheel bearings on my Civic have right at 275k miles on them. I check wheel bearings every time I change a tire or have the wheel off the bikes, such as for chain and sprocket replacement. I usually check bearings every 2000-3500 miles (or less) on my sport bikes. I have had a bearing go out in under 5000 miles when water somehow got past the seal as the wheel was off the bike and leaning against the wall. Had another go bad around 32k due to water getting past the seal from close to 1/3 of that mileage being in the rain. This first picture is the tell-tale sign of an issue (while I was riding in the rain), and the second one is what the bearing looked like, and it still was not seized. This is the bearing that had about 33k miles on it.