2009 Vstar950.

Just suffered a left rear wheel bearing failure after 30,000 miles.

Check your wheel bearings! - no damge apart from a wrecked holiday, but we could have been on I10 doing 70mph - that would not have been funny.

Geoff

Glad your ok! How did the bike react? Sure must have been scary.:eek:

,We were lucky, coasting in a built-up area, an hour later we would have been on I10; that would have been dodgy. The rear wheel almost locked, I stopped in a hurry! Currently waiting for the Yamaha dealer in Yucca Valley to opeb after the holidays.
Geoff

Was it the cush drive bearing?

Yes I think so - left side. The damn thing was hotter n hell by the time we stopped. Its annoying, I could have fixed myself at home but not 500 miles away in the desert! I will know more on. Wed when the dealdealer opens and I get a chance to talk with them. I am hoping have it done under the extended warranty - I paid the extra year.
Geoff

Yes I think so - left side. The damn thing was hotter n hell by the time we stopped. Its annoying, I could have fixed myself at home but not 500 miles away in the desert! I will know more on. Wed when the dealdealer opens and I get a chance to talk with them. I am hoping have it done under the extended warranty - I paid the extra year.
Geoff It will be covered, it is a needle bearing and is the only one to give problems.
I use Honda drive shaft special lube every time I pull the axel.
Jim

Ok Jim I will let you know what happens, it would not be that hard to simply renew the bearings at every tyre change - just never occured to me that it could be a problem.
Geoff

Ok Jim I will let you know what happens, it would not be that hard to simply renew the bearings at every tyre change - just never occured to me that it could be a problem.
GeoffAt over 45K I have not had to replace just relube with good quality grease.

So just viewed the damage (after a 1000mile round trip in a rental car to get the wife home). I think your diagnosis was dead on the needle rollers on the cush hub failed (not the wheel bearings) but in my case the cush hub moved enough to touch the oil-seal spacer which then welded itself to the cush hub and then partially destroyed the swing arm. The bill is gonna be $1200+ the deal said it happened because the main shaft nut was loose! The last tyre change was 4000 mles ago there would have been trouble long before now I think.
I am preparing for a battle. Thanks for the heads up on the needle rollers.
Geoff

So just viewed the damage (after a 1000mile round trip in a rental car to get the wife home). I think your diagnosis was dead on the needle rollers on the cush hub failed (not the wheel bearings) but in my case the cush hub moved enough to touch the oil-seal spacer which then welded itself to the cush hub and then partially destroyed the swing arm. The bill is gonna be $1200+ the deal said it happened because the main shaft nut was loose! The last tyre change was 4000 mles ago there would have been trouble long before now I think.
I am preparing for a battle. Thanks for the heads up on the needle rollers.
GeoffYour's is not the first one and Yamaha knows about it even if they tell you they not, call Yamaha and talk to them, they have fixed them even out of warranty.
You need to sign into Delphi Stratoliner,Delux,Roadliner forum which is the best place for liner info, post on this problem and you will get phone numbers and info on this problem.
Hope this helps.
Jim

OK Jim,
Is the rear-end setup the same on these other models? I have to pay the bill initially as I am stuck a long way from home. While I don't agree with the dealer's diagnosis regarding the cause of the problem they have been really helpful getting the bike running again pulling parts from other machines (some parts were not going to be here until week). So I will be taking this up with Yamaha when I get back. Any ammunition will be useful.
Once again thanks I will take this to the other forum.
Geoff

Just wanted to close this thread and let everyone know that Yamaha have done the honorable thing and will pay for the repair under my extended warranty. Last week I wrote a long letter explaining what I believed had happened and today I got a phone call from a tech at Cypress Springs telling me that they will be sending a check. Very cool.
I want to thank Jim for the heads up on the needle-roller issue - that did not occur to me at the time. I brought the damaged hub home and manged to extract the inner ball-race behind it was the wreckage of the needle rollers - completely seized.
I also want to say that despite everything Hutchins Motor sports of Yucca Valley CA did an excellent job of getting me back on the road. They pulled parts from other machines in the end, otherwise I would have been stuck 500+miles from home for another 4 days! What went wrong with the original diagnosis I will never know - but I gather that there is some "intermediary" who makes the initial call on such things.
So if you can go direct to the horses mouth so speak...
Geoff.

Just wanted to close this thread and let everyone know that Yamaha have done the honorable thing and will pay for the repair under my extended warranty. Last week I wrote a long letter explaining what I believed had happened and today I got a phone call from a tech at Cypress Springs telling me that they will be sending a check. Very cool.
I want to thank Jim for the heads up on the needle-roller issue - that did not occur to me at the time. I brought the damaged hub home and manged to extract the inner ball-race behind it was the wreckage of the needle rollers - completely seized.
I also want to say that despite everything Hutchins Motor sports of Yucca Valley CA did an excellent job of getting me back on the road. They pulled parts from other machines in the end, otherwise I would have been stuck 500+miles from home for another 4 days! What went wrong with the original diagnosis I will never know - but I gather that there is some "intermediary" who makes the initial call on such things.
So if you can go direct to the horses mouth so speak...
Geoff. Geoff, glad to hear it all worked out for you.
Jim