[snowjimmy]

I pulled my suspension out to replace the slides and found that every one of my idler wheels sounds slightly different.

When do you know when to replace them? None of the bearings are completly gone and only 1 wheel has a chunk of rubber out of it. I will replace that 1 and the 1 across from it. (I assume it is better to swap in pairs where applicable?)

I will also lube them all up but I thought I would run it by you guys 1st.

 

[MegaMan]

The way i check em' is to just wiggle them around and feel for alot of excess play in the bearings. If they are really wobbly, i'll throw in a new one, otherwise as long as they track in a straight line and it feels pretty solid, then you should be fine. The different sounds is just the bearings themselves grinding around amongst themselves along with any dirt or crud that you pick up off the trial. A little lube can't hurt, if you can get it in there.

 

[snowking]

I have gone through and replaced quite a few bearings. If it squeekes or growls, replace it. I replaced them all on a 95 Indy and I gained about 5 MPH.

 

[MAYDAZE]

If you have the suspension out, you can spin each wheel. Make sure that they spin freely and without alot of side to side play. If the wheel has any resistance or feels like it is catching every little time you turn it, it has rust in it. Replace it. If the side to side motion has alot of play, replace it. The cost of a bearing is nothing compared to having a wheel lock up or break on the trail. I replaced all 14 bearings on my sled at 3000 miles. I found a few that were funky and planned on making a trip to Canada. Rather be safe than sorry.

'HAMMER DOWN !!'

 

[TriumphoverU]

Hey guy, just wanted to throw this out there for you. If the idler wheel is in good shape, on most wheels you can replace just the bearing. The bearings are usually held in place with a snap ring. Remove the snap ring, pull out old bearing, install new bearing, and re-install the snap ring. Again...not all idlers are made this way, but alot of them are and bearing are alot cheaper than the entire idler wheel/bearing assembly

Polaris is my way out - Other people just use a door.

 

[jacqui583]

If your giving your sled the pre-season once over and find any bearings that are questionable, I'd change them. Bearings are one of those things that have a huge time curve in breakdown; once they start to break down they start to break down fast; hate to have that happen out on the trails.

Jacqui.

 

[CodeRed]

Last year I ran grass drags and one of the things that I did was take all the bearings apart and clean all the grease out of them. Think about how free a bearing spins without any grease on it. To protect the bearings I baked them in the oven while they were soaked in energy release. Then I cleaned them off and ran them in the sled dry. I had my doubts but at the end of grass season not a one bearing was failed. I packed them back with grease and ran them all winter. I'm sold on that stuff. It's alot of work but I think well worth it. I'm going to do my new sleds gears also this year.