How To Clean Mountainboard Bearings
Posted by DirtBlogger
It’s a fact of life that clean bearings roll smoother, are faster and will last longer than dirty bearings, dirt and grit can cause small pits in the balls and make for an un-even and generally poopy ride. Use the following steps to keep your bearings rust-free and your wheels spinning freely.
Things you will need:
Your Dirty Bearings
A small pin
Acetone or other solvent
A bowl or cup
and your mits
Step 1 Popping the Seals Once you have removed all eight dirty bearings from your mountainboard you can use a small pin to remove the seals. Stick your pin between the ball cage and the outside bearing race and gently pry the seal out.
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Step 2 The Soak
Fill up your bowl with 1/2″ of acetone and put the bearings in the solution and let them sit for a few minutes. Once you have done that you can tap them on the bottom of the bowl and spin the bearings in your hand until they feel grit-free. Once you get a bearing cleaned, spin it dry and set it to drain on a clean paper towel with the balls facing down .Repeat this step with the remaining bearings.
Step 3 Grease and re-seal
Apply grease or oil in-between the balls. If you are using grease you don’t want them packed, but make sure all the balls are lubricated. If you use oil, 2 or 3 drops should do the trick. Spread the grease around with your finger and roll the bearing back and forth until you can see all the balls adequately covered. Gently place the seal back on. It should “snap” into place without much force. One the seal is replaced you should can moisten the outside of the rubber seal using your greasy finger. Applying some extra grease or oil to the metal surfaces will help keep the rust away so feel free to spread some around.
Step 4 Putting your bearings back in
Now that your bearings are all lubed up and ready to rock you can begin the re-assembly process. Place all bearings back in their respective hubs and slide the wheels back onto the axels. Use a wrench to tighten down the bolt till it is nice and snug then turn it back a ¼ of a turn to insure that the wheel spins freely.
Step 5 Celebrate!
Good work, you have just cleaned and re-greased your mountainboard bearings and can now expect better performance out of your board. If you ride everyday(especially under bad weather conditions) you may consider doing this once a week, or once every two weeks to control rust and keep your wheels spinning freely. Keep in mind that these steps can also be applied to the bearings found in the top hangers of your Matrix trucks if you are riding an MBS set up. Now what are you waiting for, get out there and try out your new smoother riding board.
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