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2007 buell XB12s rear wheel dragging

5K views 50 replies 14 participants last post by  ctluba 
#1 ·
A few days ago out of the blue i noticed that my buell seemed to be dragging on the rear. I've not messed with the rear other then a fender eliminator kit.

the straw that broke the camels back is at the Norton show i did a burn out and had to drop the clutch from a VERY high RPM and it seemed to only way to rev so high.. i knew something was fucked up


tonight we put it up on the paddok stand and the rear wheel is VERY hard to turn.. i take off the rear caliper and they over engineered this thing so much. it took 40 damn mins. I dont even see a way to take off the rear wheel do the axle being hollow and the rear bolts being recessed into the swing arm.

i am seeing fucking gouges in the metal so of the caliper mount.. its looking like if someone took off this wheel (maybe to replace tires?) they maybe forgot a spacer?

Also no this bike was rode like a grandma. Only thing close to abuse i did was 85MPH on the highway and 2 burn outs. So from me it took no impact no damage or nothing like that.

I am out of ideas and out of money too, that's the only thing keeping me from taking it to the harley dealership right now.
 
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#5 ·
i have a book i will see if it has a diagram

Also i dont even know how to being to take the wheel off. so uggh.
 
#6 ·
i just want to add my observations to the convo... it seems to me that the caliper bracket some how becaome closer to the rotor than it should be. I dont know how this would happen other than a bent rotor... but wouldnt it get loose and then tight as the wheel would spin if it was a bent rotor?

I really dont understand how this just happened.... the bike was fine and then all of a sudeen this.
 
#8 ·
Buells are notorious for blowing wheel bearings Mitch. My computer is slow to load videos in my car so I only watched a few seconds. No brake caliper and the wheel is still hard to turn, I'd say your bearings are fried. If there was a spacer missing, you would have known it by the shimmy coming out of the rear end...ask me how I know.

Welcome to the wonderful world of Buell ownership bud.
 
#10 ·
wouldnt there be play in the wheel if it was bad bearings? The only reason i say this is because when wheel bearings go bad on a bmx wheel it wobbles from side to side
 
#12 ·
well i looked at the manual and the axle tightens in with pinch bolts so i am not sure if that can happen. (although you need a 7/8ths lol Allen wrench to loosen that so you may be right and i hope you are)

I didn't touch any of that stuff when i got it.

i think warrior steel is right.


I was pretty livid in the garage so i am going to wait until tomorrow to take off the wheel, with my hand tat i dont want to turn a wrench and dan is kind enough to do that for me and i think he is tired from cheese burger over load. :thumbsup:
 
#13 ·
I understand that motorcycle wheels should drag but i am sure not this much..

I wish they spun like pushing a BMX wheel.. that would be sweet.
 
#14 ·
Bearings don't always have play when they are toast. Lots of pulley bearings(think timing belt pulley) just growl or are hard to spin when they go bad, no play.

I also am curious about overtightened axle. The pinch bolts hold it in place, and one end is probably big ass threaded, or has an insert that is threaded, then pinched with one set of bolts. So like, put insert in. Tighten insert pinch bolts. Put axle through, tighten axle. Then, tighten axle pinch bolts.

On the big ass allen head, find a bolt head that fits well, and if you can't find one, get one bigger, and grind it down. Then, get a nut for it, and weld it on the other end. Bam, axle tool.
 
#27 ·
On the big ass allen head, find a bolt head that fits well, and if you can't find one, get one bigger, and grind it down. Then, get a nut for it, and weld it on the other end. Bam, axle tool.
Great idea Brian!! :thumbsup:


:LolLolLolLol:
 
#15 ·
thanks for that idea fathead.

we were going to find a big bolt and bend it but the bolt/big nut (LOL!) is probably what we are going to end up doing.

I will report back once we tear into this tomorrow.
 
#18 ·
we took the caliper off so it was away from the rotor.

has to be wheel bearings now.

thanks guys


i would love your buell but at this rate i'll be fixing this thing all season. :(
 
#20 ·
i tracked down 2 wheel bearings for the rear, going to go get them now and make the tool for the rear end

Shall report back tonight.
 
#23 ·
I'm a bit late chiming in here, but yeah, what everyone said. Buells are indeed notorious for eating rear wheel bearings. The 2010 wheels have three bearings in them, like on my Cyclone.
 
#24 ·
yup buell bearings are chinese junk. i got mine from napa. under your seat should be a tool bag and it has a double ended nut looking thing. theres a lock bolt on the bottom of the right rear. as you loosen the axle it will loosen the belt. i have no idea how but it does. its fucking magic. look under your seat for the tool bag.
 
#25 ·
so we made this


which was a total fucking fail

then while we were at lowes looking for a 7/8ths bolt dan had an idea..


it worked fantastic, after some weld it became..


so now the wheel is off, is this normal? I figure with fucked wheel bearings it might be..

 
#26 ·
Check your rotor to make sure it didn't get too gouged, bent or warped. I'm not sure if you can reuse the rotor mounting bolts or not...probably not, going by my experience with Buells so far. I'm sure you can find that out pretty easily though.
 
#28 ·
I was going to mention the 2010 bearings but phoebe beat me to it. My 09 rear wheel bearings are already starting to show a little rust on the inner race so I'm going to replace mine soon. The best thing I ever bought was a Motion Pro wheel bearing remover (http://motionpro.com/motorcycle/partno/08-0269/) Makes the job a breeze. I'm not sure about the XB but my rear axle is left-hand thread so be careful you're turning it the correct way. The factory Buell tool kit has a tool for removing the axle. It basically looks like two 7/8" nuts joined together. If you don't have one, Motion Pro also sells this (http://motionpro.com/motorcycle/tools/category/t-6_crmo_hex_axle_tool/)
Good luck! I think of all the bikes I've owned, my Buell is probably the easiest to work on.
 
#29 ·
Making your own tool like that is good for the short term (or if it's a weird size you can't find anywhere), but if you plan on doing more work on the bike yourself, you may as well just buy a set of hex sockets. They're not very expensive.
 
#31 ·
hex fits?

the end of this socket was exactly 7/8ths

total cost was 2.75


trying to grind that bolt down was fucking RETARDED and just made a huge mess. I put some weld in the end of this extension. it fits perfect.
 
#33 ·
the bearings are pressed into the wheel super tight.

I began to pry a bit and it was NOT going to happen so i am going to bitch out and take my wheel to a HD dealer and get them to press out the old ones and press in the new ones.

some of you guys might laugh at me but i do not feel safe taking out the old bearings with out fucking up the wheel and i need my DD (this bike) working in 2 days for a ride (yay)
 
#35 ·
Nothing wrong with that...if you don't to it right, you can ruin the wheel. Any competent shop should be able to replace the bearings for you if you don't want to go to a HD dealership (unless your dealership is Buell friendly...a lot of them aren't)
 
#43 ·
so the culprit has been apprehended...

I can say that i was not guilty of this, as i didn't own the bike long enough for this to happen.


 
#44 ·
So are you saying that the wheel spun freely on its axle after you removed it from the swingarm? I'm still thinking that your bent rotor is a symptom and not the actual problem itself.

That said, are you going to get a cool aftermarket rotor for the back now? :)
 
#45 ·
the rotor was warped about half an inch to the left, digging into the caliper hanger.

i took it to HD because i was stumped and my only other ride is my v8 car and filling it coasted me 71.00

they drag race buells so one of the guys sold me his old parts, rotor hanger and caliper all for 70.00 no waiting on ebay.

They were all super cool to me, the one guy chatted metric bikes with me and they all said when they saw dan, then his bike that they couldn't see him on anything else (they try and sell HDs to fat guys normally like it was cake)

when the guy asked me about my thunderbird and i told him it was my ONLY ride he even bumped me ahead of 2 baggers.

Over all i am extremely pleased with these dudes.


So i got this bike like this.. I am thinking that the rotor warped and was rubbing the caliper hanger.. you could * barley* feel it so i rode it, causing the rotor to warp more and more taking the wheel bearings with it.

bike is fixed and i am pleased. :thumbsup:
 
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