Sealed bearings installation on the '67-72 rear brake drum

[1950Bobber]

Instructions here are compliments of Jack Hester: According to the manual, the front brake drum bearing assembly is the same as the rear, which has two bearings. There is no set depth of these bearings. Install the brake drum on the hub, tightly. Make sure the hub inner spacer is in the hub, and press the two bearings (one at a time) into the drum. They will stop when the inner race reaches the inner spacer. That is all that you have to do. These bearing are held in alignment purely by the inner races. The bearing on the other side of the hub sets the thrust. The two in the brake drum are a press fit, but do not control thrust. They only support. No mention of depth in the manual. Nor is there any means such as a snap ring, to hold the bearings in. Only the axle spacer, again, still only holding by the inner race(s).

[1950Bobber]

Just an update! .....Regarding the bearing(s) installation on my 67-72 rear brake drum/wheel.......

I had 3 inner spacers on hand to choose from. One was OEM stock. Another was from VTwin and the other CCI. The OEM inner spacer was a tad bit longer than the CCI, but the same length as the VTwin inner spacer however.

When I installed the OEM inner spacer (OEM has gotta' be better, right?)....the axle sleeve "rubbed" against the sealed bearing during wheel rotation... I'm suspecting that the longer inner spacer forced the two sealed bearing out to close to the outer edge of the brake drum consequently forcing itself into the innermost aspect of the axle sleeve.

So,.....

I replaced the OEM inner spacer with the shorter CCI inner spacer....hoping to inset the sealed bearings just a bit more into the brake drum...not much mind you but a noticeable length! I was trying to achieve some "distance" between the axle sleeve and the outermost sealed bearing so when the whole rear wheel was tightened down, I wouldn't be forcing that axle sleeve into the bearing surface.

I replaced the whole set up again...(Geez, how many times do I have to do this?). This time the axle sleeve had some space between the last sealed bearing surface and the innermost surface of the axle sleeve! Voila! Wheel without rub or grind!

Any comments? Could the OEM inner spacer have been too long to do what I was suspecting? Was I doing something wrong...or am I onto something with this change? Sure would like to hear from anybody with what you're thinking here! By the way, the rear wheel I'm using, is 1967-72 vintage OEM STOCK and NOS! The Brake Drum is OEM STOCK and NOS! What the heck happened?????

Thanks guys.....as ALWAYS!

Jim in Seattle "1950 Bobber"