Ceramic Bearing Problem

I was throwing my yoyo with my Konkave Ceramic bearing in it, and all of a sudden it made a really loud noise and was responsive… So I opened up the yoyo, and when I tried to spin the bearing with my finger it literaly made like 1 rotation. Then I took the bearing of the bearing seat, and there was a bunch of hair. I took the hair out but that wasnt the problem. THen I took off the shields. There was a small piece of thread I took out, but that wasnt the problem. So I put it on a chopstick and spun it for a bit, then it got better. Now its spin time is decent and the yoyo is unresponsive, but, its making a strange noise. Kinda like a whistling noise… Not spinning as long as it did before either. Any ideas on what to do?

I always just use thin lube and then play it for awhile.
How ever you can do so many differnt things too maintain your bearings.
One thing I have to ask is did you take the shields off, and then put them back on?
If so one of the shields may be rubbing, and causing a slow down and such.

I tried it without shields, and on its page in the shop it says the balls will just absorb the lube and make it go really slow or something. Is it ok to clean ceramic bearings?

I have one I have put lube in for years it plays great, so I don’t know.
I have also cleaned it, Can’t say what is up with yours.

I actualy just looked on dif-e-yo’s website and he says too use it with a small amout of lube. http://www.dif-e-yo.com/konkave.htm

Anyone want to confirm that would work??

If you are referring to the dif-e-yo page, I will just say that he knows what he’s talking about. He’s been in the business a long time and puts out a quality product.

Mr. Difeo definitely knows what’s up. It’s been my experience that ceramic bearings play much better with lube than they do dry, but YMMV. And yes - you can clean them.

High Speed ceramic/hybrid bearings come from the factory dry.
I clean the ones I use in acetone just to remove any machining debre.
They don’t require any lube.

I’ve never used the bearings that you sell, fjh, so I certainly wont comment on them. That said, the four ceramic bearings I’ve played that came in the two Tiwalkers and two Duncan MGs I’ve owned would crap out and become responsively relatively quickly (within an hour) when cleaned in acetone and left dry. However, when hit with a drop of thin lube and then broken in by playing them for a bit, they played great. Just sharing my experience in case other folks experience something similar.

Not sure what type bearings they use.
I’ve been doing them for yoyos 4 years now, no problems.

Clean the bearing in mineral spirits, it won’t harm the bearing and it will remove any dust from inside the bearing.

Mineral spirits is a oil base paint thinner. It’s fine to use if residual oil is not a problem.

been putting lube in ceramic bearing since the 90’s I have one right now that gets used regularly, and has ever since then it works fine.
I also share the same experience in the probably 30ish ceramics I have had with jrod, they act screwy with out a little lube. with lube, they play super awesome. They play unresponsive but go responsive sometimes if I don’t add lube if I do add it they play unresponsive for a really long time until they need more lube.
What I am getting at is, you can see we all use different ways to maintain a bearing all work, find the way you like and do that.

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Another thing that hasn’t been mentioned is you can try and give the bearing a good spray with canned compressed air, making sure to take the shields off first of course. That way you can remove any other debris from the bearing you might not be seeing and you won’t run the “risk” of using chemical solvents.

if you have ceramic GET AWAY FROM ANY LUBES it will absorb it and literally freeze the bearing up… i hope im not to late give me a time of the funeral

What funeral? Have you even bothered to read the thread at all?

Ceramics can’t absorb lube.

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i have an ceramic kk,it does to it was a waste of $30

Say what???

Send it to me. I’ll fix it.
Or at least tell you what the problem really is…