Cleaned bearing sounds crackly and gritty

General Yo-Yo
1

I noticed some responsiveness on my yoyofriends ultracut, so I decided to clean the bearing, along with 2 myy bearings. After soaking it in 100% acetone and agitating it a bunch, I let it dry for about 10 minutes then I spun it on a pencil. At first it spun for like 2 seconds but after a bit it started spinning really long. Once it was fully dried I put it back on and for the first ~20 minutes it was completely silent and unresponsive. After that period, the bearing started to become semi responsive and the sound came back, but it sounded normal. About an hour after cleaning it started sounding gritty. All the bearings have been cleaned 3 times and all sound the same

2

Thin lube helps with the noise. After cleaning, I put a very small amount in. Usually super quiet after that. Too much and it’ll become responsive, so you need a very small amount (like a half drip on the tip of a needle).

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3

did you deshield the bearings? make sure it’s opened up when you clean them otherwise stuff can stay trapped in the bearing race

try cleaning it with dish detergent and a small brush. acetone won’t break down certain things that dish soap will. just make sure you rinse it really well and dry thoroughly. i use an electric duster to blow it out as opposed to compressed air as compressed air can have water in it, but if compressed is all you have it’ll work

lastly, take a qtip and dip it in either your acetone or 91% rubbing alcohol and clean the bearing seat on both halves really well. sometimes oils settle on the bearing seat and transfer back to the bearing

you can use lube or not. i used to not, now i do. it makes it quieter. if you start hearing noise from the bearing keep playing for a bit if you can ignore it. frequently whatever was in it will dislodge and quiet back down. but if not, the above tips should help

edit:

fwiw you don’t need to do this if you don’t want. yes it will be responsive-ish for a bit but you can just play it out over like 20-30 min. i put 8-10 fat drops in my bearings, spin em a few times, wipe off and call it good

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