Morini Kanguro Rebuild

Rear wheel bearings

The rewound alternator saga is still ongoing...however on my return from a test ride today I wobbled the rear wheel. Why? I don't know. Anyway it was obvious that there was play in the rear wheel bearing on the drum brake side. I should have renewed them when I did the rebuild but they have been fine until now so why bother?

The quick release hub worked a treat and I had the wheel on a soft wood stool I keep just for this purpose in a few minutes. The left bearing and oil seal were easily drifted out whilst shifting the spacer. The right hand, brake side, wouldn't budge. Luckily before I did any damage I carefully levered out the oil seal and found that the bearing is retained with a circlip. Note that the circlip is not shown on the Morini parts diagram. Once the clip was out the bearing could be drifted out with difficulty, after heating the hub with a blow torch. It turned the edge of my Facom drift! The parts needed:

• 2 x 2504 oil seal
• 2 x 3203 bearing

were easily obtained from City Seals and Bearings at the surprising cost of £42. On questioning the price, I was told that the bearings are double row designed to resist high radial load.

I popped the bearings in the freezer while I ate lunch and fitting was fairly straightforward. The only problem is that now I can tell that there is a tiny amount of play in the swingarm.

The drift was squared off with an angle grinder to restore its sharp edge.