Ok i just got my H5xChief and it is AMAZING but the 10-ball bearing in it was fouled in like only one minute!!! (I am not exaggerating) This has happened to all my other bearings regardless of the type and make. (that includes 10-ball, 10-ball ceramic, Center track, and normal flat)
Ive tried cleaning them ALL and they just end up worse…
I have been using low-odor-mineral spirits and soaking them for about five mins a piece and then spinning them a few times and then soaking them again…
I’ll even pay someone else to clean them if they can get them to almost new.
Pm me for offers on that, but otherwise PLEASE help me figure out what is wrong!!!
I would go outside, to a well ventilated area and try some proper mineral spirits or lighter fluid. Low-odor mineral spirits sounds like watered out terpentine or something, which will compromise the cleaning effect.
And try to spin the bearing while being soaked in the fluid. If a piece of debree is stuck between one of the balls and the raceway it may not come out just by trying to dissolve it. Use gloves or something though, try avoiding direct contact.
Acetone is the way to go. Destroys almost anything that’s not supposed to be in your bearing, and dries nearly instantaneously without leaving any residue. If acetone alone doesn’t work, try and get one of those cans of keyboard cleaners with the little straw and use that give your bearing a quick high pressure cleaning. If I have a bearing that’s being really stubborn I usually soak it in acetone for about 10 minutes or so, take it out and put it on the end of a pen and blast it with the keyboard cleaner. You can aim the keyboard cleaner straight at the bearing to blow out any residue or foreign bodies, and you can also aim the cleaner at a sort of angle to the bearing which causes it to spin extremely fast. This helps it to dry even faster and also can spin out anything you may have missed. Then of course, add whatever lube you prefer. Good luck!
Don’t soak it. Get low odor mineral spirits paint thinner. It’s all one thing. It should be in a square metal container, and it is clear like water. Put like 1 ounce of it in a small container, and put the bearing with the shields OFF the bearing in it. Don’t soak it, but shake it while the container is closed. This will get the liquid to swish through the bearing, and push out any gunk or unwanted objects in the bearing. Count to a minute while shaking. When done, pull the bearing out with some tweasers. And get like a pen or the end of a paint brush and slide the bearing on it until it is kinda tight on there. Spin the bearing for about a minute, immediately after that, get a needle or push pen, and put a small drop of thin lube, like one drop yoyo lube, or if you are at home or can’t order this online, get trumpet valve oil. Put a drop of the lube on a needle and put the end of the needle onto one of the balls in the bearing. The lube should slide off the needle, onto the ball in the bearing. Then spin the bearing a a couple times. Just to spread the lube around. Don’t spin too much. Then just put the bearings shields back on if you want to. I don’t. It’s too much work. So it’s optional. But there you go! Hope this helps
I do everything described by WretchedRapture above, except for soaking; I recommend shaking like the next posters described.
For one particularly stubborn bearing, I tried something recommended by a YYE user: got some Turtle Wax swirl remover and polish, packed it into the bearing, and moved the bearing around a bit. Repacked, moved around a bit. After I felt I had “polished” the inside of the bearing enough, I put it in some distilled water (tap water would be fine; I just had distilled onhand) in a small container and shook the snot out of it. Then repeated to make sure the polish was out of the bearing.
THEN I moved on to the solvent, spinning, and air blasting.
Bearing came out great. Coincidence? Maybe. Who’s to say the polish is what did it, or if it was just one more go with the soak and air? But the bearing works now.
Acatone will not effect a ceramic bearing. Spin it on a stick in a fresh bit of it and flick it till dry.
Removes all traces of oil and gease, unlike mineral spirts…
