Rear wheel bearing

[Rosy]

Despite tightening the adjusting ring on the back wheel really tight, when I refit the back wheel there is still perceptible play, so how tight does it need to be? I would think with taper bearings that a lot of tightening would not be necessary unless something else has worn. I'm assuming my G9 is fitted with tapered bearings. The play is not great but I doubt an MOT tester would accept it. I have read the other post but none refer to my problem.

[bitza]

Just tight enough to feel a little side movement at the wheel rim, taper bearings require a small amount of play, but not ecsessive.
Do the retaining sleeve up then back it of rocking the wheel at the rim when your happy with it lock up the collar recheck , it might take a few goes to get it right, when you lock the collar it sometimes creeps the sleeve round and loses the small amount of play, just keep at it till you are satisfied. Slowly slowly catchee monkey. If you have a hand book it explains the procedure.

[Rob Harknett]

You have told us why your bearings still feel loose. You are not doing it right. Read your book.
You say on refitting the wheel your bearings feel loose. Yes they probably will. Back to the book. Your book will say, on refitting the wheel do the finale bearing adjustment. The amount of rock is felt on the rim. You can feel the rock only, at the rim, when the wheel is securely fitted. You cannot feel the required rock AT THE RIM with the wheel out. So just do as the book tells you. On fitting the wheel make the finale adjustment. You must feel the rock at the rim. Make sure the wheel is fitted tight so you are not also feeling movement of the spindle in the frame or forks. Do not over tighten or you will ruin the bearings. Finally loosen the spindle adjust chains, tighten wheel nuts, lock brake anchor, adjust brakes. If you have not got a workshop manual I advise you to get one. Don't ride your bike until its safe to ride on the the road. Which you must do, if the bike is M oT exempt. You have not got the MoT man to check your bike is safe to ride.

[SPRIDDLER]

I see you have a couple of modern Royal Enfields so maybe you haven't needed to do much fettling and these old bikes can suffer from the woes of all sorts of spanner work by previous owners - damaged threads etc.
Don't despair! If you don't have them you can view and download the Owners and the Workshop manuals for your G9 from here:
http://archives.jampot.dk/book/

[Rosy]

Thanks for your replies, I do have the "book" a downloaded version from the excellent Archives. But what I'm saying is with the adjusting ring as tight as I dare go and the wheel refitted fully reassembled and spindle tightened there should be no play, to the point of the wheel even binding. That is not the case with mine there is still play to be felt at the wheel rim which leads me to believe that something else is amiss. If I was to tighten the ring and back it off a smidge and lock it according to the book there would be about 3mm at the wheel rim. I realise the forum gets these kind of questions asked all the time, but not every answer can be found in the book even when followed word for word, that why I seek alternative answers from the experience and knowledge of club members.
Yes I do have a couple of Modern Enfields. It's a long time since I had an AJS 60yrs since, but then play in the rear wheel just would not have bothered me, but I did learn most of my spannering on them.

[SPRIDDLER]

Is the bike new to you? In view of your problem with the mullered oil tank cap thread maybe the hub wasn't correctly assembled in the first place?
Some factory documentation is incorrect. There's a superb cutaway pic of the correct assembly of a '56 G9 rear hub here:
http://www.jampot.com/pic_display.asp?id=820

[Rob Harknett]

Thanks for your replies, I do have the "book" a downloaded version from the excellent Archives. But what I'm saying is with the adjusting ring as tight as I dare go and the wheel refitted fully reassembled and spindle tightened there should be no play, to the point of the wheel even binding. That is not the case with mine there is still play to be felt at the wheel rim which leads me to believe that something else is amiss. If I was to tighten the ring and back it off a smidge and lock it according to the book there would be about 3mm at the wheel rim. I realise the forum gets these kind of questions asked all the time, but not every answer can be found in the book even when followed word for word, that why I seek alternative answers from the experience and knowledge of club members.
Yes I do have a couple of Modern Enfields. It's a long time since I had an AJS 60yrs since, but then play in the rear wheel just would not have bothered me, but I did learn most of my spannering on them.

As Nevvile wrote something else may be wrong. From your first posting, it did seem to read you had not done the finale check. If you dismantle the hub check the fine threads are not damaged. You should be able to screw the bearing adjuster all the way in the hub by hand if the threads are good.

[Stan Palmer]

I've only done a couple of these so no expert. But I did find that to get the final adjustment I had to tighten the ring and then give it a significant tap. This moves the bearing the amount of the slack in the thread. Tighten again, tap again. Repeat until the slack is correct. Possibly this was because my bearing is tighter in the housing than it should be. But it worked.
Stan

[Rosy]

Well there's plenty of suggestions there for me to try, I suspect it will be something simple and with that cut away photo Spriddler suggested I'll find the answer.
The bike is new to me, Bought it recently from Kettering and it came with some unbelievable bodges, dangerous ones at that so why should the back wheel be any different. a bit cynical there but generally the bike is in good shape. I'm about two thirds working my way around putting things right, but some parts are very challenging, the oil tank thread for one, don't judge a bike by the photo, look beneath the polish.

[JimFitz]

I rebuilt my G12 rear hub a few years back and I am assuming it is similar to yours. I seem to remember that the factory drawing was incorrect regarding the position of a dished spacer/washer which is shown the wrong way round so go by the excellent cut away drawing in the archive which shows correct assembly sequence. If assembled as to the incorrect factory drawing the spindle may turn and wreck the speedo drive and lock up the back wheel. DAMHIK - luckily I had a sidecar on and I was on grass at the time!
Stan is quite right - IIRC the bearing and spindle have to be knocked against the circlip stop at the opposite end to the adjuster first to bed things in. Then tighten the adjusting ring ideally using the correct C spanner rather than knocking it round with a drift and ruining the end of the adjuster as had happened to mine - I had to buy another adjusting ring. Do not overdo the adjustment at this stage or you may have to tap the bearing back at the sprocket side to create some clearance.
Then bolt the wheel in and rock at the rim - you will probably create some more movement as things bed in. You may have to tighten the adjuster a bit more until you get the slight movement you are looking for at the wheel rim but you may find if you tighten too much you will have to take it all apart to knock the bearing under the adjuster back.
Quite a fiddly job - good luck with it.


Jim