Fixing Biltins

[Chrys Reinhardt]

Five out of eight were bad.
I got four of them done easily.
The fifth and worst one took a set of pliers to get the clip off and some very tricky needle nose work to get the sheild back into working shape.
It was a mess.
The clip took some very careful hand reshaping and then zip clip I got it back together and spinning freely.
I'm surprized because that last one looked like a lost cause.
Lubed 'em with Tri Flow because that's all I have here for a thin lube.
Hope that isn't a crappy choice.
My only other choices here at the house are Harley Davidson wheel bearing grease or Phil's tenaciuos oil.

[Mark Chandler]

It sounds like you have dented shields. Remove them (use a safety pin to get the clip out), and carefully "pound" them "straight."

[Adrian Alderson]

Chrys,

use a pin to lift the edge of the C-clip and pull off the shields, then just run them without shields. I have done this with a few sets on various boards, it just means you have to clean them a little more often, but there is no friction losses due to rubbing shields.

Cheers

Adrian

[Chrys Reinhardt]

I've got a set of Biltins abec 5 and only three out of the eight spin freely.
I've cleaned and dried them and the only thing I would think is the problem at this point is that the sheilds are interfering with their spin.
I see that there is a clip over the sheild but I don't get the impression that it is meant to be removed.
The clip is super tight and does not look like a removable cover like the old NDH Singapore bearings I used years ago.
These look more like the sheilds on the GMN German bearings I used to use.
Can anyone confirm or deny or recommend a course of action.
I'm ready to toss 'em and go back to other bearings.