Bearing cleaning methods
 

Nobody likes to spend more on replacing bearings, I figured I'd try a new method other than the usually film canister full of WD40. I picked up a jewelry cleaner from Harbor Freight (of all places?). This thing removes stuff I never knew was there. I had an idea that some of my wheel bearings were bad, but I didn't think I'd be seeing metal shavings coming out from around the seals.
So far I've tried water then WD40 as the cleaners and obviously the solvent works the most aggressively.

http://i69.photobucket.com/albums/i4...y/feefc33e.jpg

Maybe a citrus based degreaser might work good .

That's a neat idea!

I use a high solvent made by Zep called I.D. RED, which is more or less aerosol brake cleaner on steroids, brake cleaner would be good if it didn't react with the plastic on the unit, other than that I'd try a fairly dilute Simple Green or Purple Power type cleaner.

I use Simple Green then some Moo-Slick.

These wheel bearing were far beyond bad. Now I know why the wheels where kinda loose. 6 of the 8 were almost completely seized, the other 2 were in bad shape as well. These were the bearing that had been in the hubs when I bought it 2nd hand. Guess I'll be ordering some more of these sooner than I thought.

This afternoon I took out the wheel bearings from my Vendetta ST and clean them via WD40 in the "magic box". After, I dried them off and used some spray can white lithium grease. Worked really well I think.

How often do you racers out there clean your wheel bearings? After every race day?