Ok so i bought a terrapin x S/C bearing and about a week ago i got it in the mail and it has worked amazing…up until now that is. I was just having fun and then all the sudden my yoyo just came up by its self, smashing my finger i might add, so i took the bearing off, spun it on a pen and it didnt spin well. I though, “oh it just needs a blow of air like it says to if it needs cleaning”, when my air compressor finally built up enough air, i blew some air into the bearing. What happened was that the bearing would spin really fast and then it would stop spinning, then start spinning again like it skipped a beat. I have no clue whats wrong and i dont wanna screw with it unless im sure it wont mess the bearing up because i dont have the money to buy another. Please can someone help me, im new to this, i started yo-yoing since i got out of the hospital near the end of January, after almost bleeding to death and finding out i have Marfan’s disease, yo-yoing has been my relief, so its really important to me that i get my bearing fixed. PLEASE HELP!
It probably needs to be cleaned. There’s multiple “how to’s” on cleaning it but in a nut shell. De-shield, put it in mineral spirits/lighter fluid/whatever you’d prefer(in glass container), swirl around, put it on a paper towel and reshield it. Then apply lube if so desired. I’d also suggest looking at other tutorials on how to clean a bearing for further knowledge.
I know how to clean normal bearings and stuff but i dont want to use the way i normally clean my bearings because supposedly theres some special way to clean a terrapin x bearing, and ive already done the compressed air and thats when i noticed when it spun fast it would sorta bounce around then stop. At slow speeds the bearing is fine and smooth, its just when its fast that it stops. All i really wanna know is how to clean a steel/ceramic terrapin bearing correctly because i googled it and every thing just says use compressed air, which didnt work.
I had the exact same thing happen. Took video footage of it to show the Terrapin folks, but didn’t end up needing it (they simply told me to send it in for servicing or replacement) so I deleted it… but identical.
I did the acetone and compressed air thing, but it never ended up helping. I just may not have been thorough enough, though. The replacement has worked thus far.
So who do i talk to for this replacment bearing? Because my old bearings just dont feel right, and not having it fixed would be a waste of money.
Cleaning Terrapin X S/C bearings is easy:
First the bearing is treated in a manner where you ideally should never need to treat the bearing. John claims the bearing is permanently treated via some sort of baking process.
Second, cleaning the bearing is fairly straight-forward: give it a bath in acetone, shake it for a minute, take it out, drain it, spin it dry and it should be fine. However, that isn’t always sufficient. Should you want to, it’s always recommended to use compressed air to blow out any additional hard contaminants. I recommend this with the cleaning of any bearing anyways.
I only have 1 S/C bearing that I’m aware of, and it’s in my Code 2 with disc side effects.
Thank you i shall attempt this right now.
Sweet i just finished cleaning its there and bouncing just barely but not enough to make a difference. Thank you so muuucchhhhh!!!
A Terapin bearing has to be cleaned in some Acetone.
I wonder if it “has to be” or if that’s just John’s strong recommendation. Surely there are going to be other solvents that don’t mess with the treatment…
Wondered this myself.
My Wingcut recently became a little dirty and performance started to suffer, but I’ve refrained from cleaning because I didn’t want to mess up the treatment haha. Well, and because I’m lazy.
I bought a quart of acetone at Home Depot for less than a quart of mineral spirits. Same brand.
As far as an alternate solvent, I’d have to defer to what John has to say about his product. He says acetone, and I like acetone better than mineral spirits, so in my case, it’s just how I prefer to do things. Plus, I’m treating all my bearings with Dry Play anyways, so acetone also makes sense to me anyways. In my experience, comparing mineral spirits to acetone, I simply prefer acetone. I haven’t used ligher fluid, but in my defense, I don’t want to either.
Can he just clean it and then re treat with dry play?
The treatment for the S/C bearings isn’t DryPlay, and acetone will not destroy it (which is why John recommends it as far as I can see). I would think less powerful solvents would also NOT destroy the treatment the S/C bearings receive.
I’ve been told by John that the S/C do not need and will not benefit from DryPlay.
If it’s a Terrapin X steel bearing, cleaning it in acetone will remove the current treatment. Use Dry Play to re-treat the bearing. John recommends using Acetone for use with Dry Play, and as I’ve said before, I’ve found in my experience acetone works better than other solvents, so this is just more reason for me to use acetone and then Dry Play in all my bearings(except for the bearings in my loopers)
Ok so it happened again and i cleaned it in acetone and it didnt help at all. So i started to look why it didnt help, i found out that the bearing spins fine if it is on its side but when its vertical, like if it were in a yoyo being used, it vibrates and then stops. I dont know whats wrong and i really want to know how to fix it. Ill post a video up if need be because this is starting to annoy me.
This is sounding very unusual. At this point, I would contact John of Terrapin X about this. There’s either something you’re doing horribly wrong(possible) or something wring with the bearing(plausible). He stands behind his product so he’ll take good care of you.
How would i go about contacting him?
I think you will find most bearing with any treatment spin a lot longer horizontal rather then vertical.
I know every bearing I have ever had did.
Also I agree with everyone else contact him. I have never heard of him not fixing/replacing a bad bearing. This is his profile send him a pm. 
http://yoyoexpert.com/forums/index.php?action=profile;u=1879
PM sent…