So i was playing with my Hydrogen Crash, which had a new, smooth Dif-E-Yo installed in it recently. I have been throwing on this bearing for over a week now and until now it had been pretty much silent. Mid-combo suddenly the yo gets taken off of mute and becomes LOUD. I haven’t dinged or even touched the ground with the Crash on any surface lately, and the bearing is relatively fresh.
I checked and the bearing still spins for like 6 seconds when given a flick. I know that means that the action is still good, but now it sounds like it has a rattle in it.
What happened? How do I fix it? This has happened with other bearings of mine. I clean them by immersing them in lighter fuel and although it can make a responsive bearing unresponsive again it doesn’t eliminate the rattle. Am I not cleaning deep enough? I have yet to unshield any of my bearings so their cleaning currently consists of me just plopping them in the fuel to soak a few days before removing and spin-drying them
Take the shields off and soak the bearing for at least an hour or so, shake and swirl the jar or whatever you have it in. Sounds like crud has built up in there and it can’t get out because of the shields. If you need help removing and putting them back on I got you I’m a pro at it now lol
You’ll get it, my best advice is to use the smallest thinnest pin/sewing needle you can find because a thumb tack etc is too big to pry underneath the end of the c clips. Putting them back on is easy just use your thumb and index finger to kinda compress the clip back into the little gap and you should almost hear it kinda snap back into place
I have many bearings that phase in and out of noisiness. It doesn’t seem like a build up of debris (in my cases), because they go back to being quiet without any cleaning.
Removing the shields usually reduces the problem.
My guess is that play in the bearing components plus vibration causing them to gradually reorient allows them to drift in and out of noisy configurations.
I run bearings completely dry.
YMMV though, because environment is a factor. I live in a very dry, dusty climate.
I’d guess the same that taking the shield off and cleaning might fix it. Shake it inside whatever fluid you use. Also hit it with an air compressor or canned air. If you need any help let me know, taking off shields can be super frustrating. Sometimes when my bearings start getting loud I do a few gyroscopic flops and it seems to fix it. No clue how or why it works but I read it somewhere before and it seems to work. Side style gyroscopic flops work better for me, it seems to flop around a lot more that direction.
I got a bunch of bearings mostly from Hollywood modern which is/was a great deal. So my first go is I just swap the bearing. However I do have a small pile of bearings to clean at some point that got loud or just play wonky or whatever. Lots of topics on cleaning if you have any specific questions launch em here. Someone on this thread can help ya
If you do deshield it’ll cleanup more of the stuff especially if you have pets with dander, smoke or live in a very dusty or humid area.
Once the shields off you can also try the paper trick if the bearing is still not happy after a wash. Maybe something broke down in the race.
Another neat trick. Try putting your bearing in a sealable container with the solvent of choice then put the container in a jewelry cleaner or attach a sonic tooth brush to the container to create vibration to knock off some more debris. The bearing it’s self can break down a bit with use over time especially if run dry.
If your still having issues after cleaning then make sure to blow out the solvent when done cleaning with compressed air. If you use lube very little and blow out the extra.
First and foremost, bearing shields have some luck factor in them. Sometimes they are not fit tightly so they might rattle. Take em off.
When it comes to bearings randomly becoming loud, there really isn’t a solution to that unfortunately. This is totally normal behaviour though. I’ve had some high end bearings become louder than a drill. It happens. Especially when you run em dry, they happen more often.
Normally, the sudden loudness phases in and out. It might just go away after playing with it for a while. Sometimes it might not. If you need the bearing to be quiet, I recommend lube, since I found the random bearing screaming phenomenon to happen way less and more likely to go away quicker with a lubed bearing.
If it is still screaming after lubing, then I recommend you clean the bearing, dry it completely and lube again. That way you absolutely know that there isn’t any significant amount of debris or dirt in the bearing causing it to scream.