The rear wheel has away had a lot of play and I have put that down to worn out wheel bearing. I took off the rear mud guard. I had a couple reasons for that. First, the mud guard has to be painted. Second, I need to sort out the rear lights and wiring loom that feeds the rear light cluster is attached to the mud guard and lastly it makes getting wheel out easier. When I had the mud guard off I took off the rubber mud guard extender. That was a bit of a wrestle. Pinging off the wiring loom straps was easy.
Getting the wheel off was easy. I looked at he brake linings. They were a good condition. However the wheel bearing weren't. I pulled off the dust covers and spacers. They were completely caked in thick, sticky, oxidisied grease. I put the taper rollers, dust covers and spacers in a degreasing solution. Then I degreased the bearing surfaces inside the wheel's hub. I then turned my attention to the fit of the wheel to the drive spline. I offered the wheel up and it still felt like some was holding it off. I took that wheel out and replaced it with the new Ebay wheel. That wheel had a bit a play in it too. I put the new stainless steel spindle in and had a good look at it. I had a old steel spindle which I had to dig out of the bottom of the spares box. I compared the two spindles. The stainless item look wrong when compared with the original item. There was not much in it but then again the play is only small. The old spindle was a much better fit but it is a bit rusty.
The next job is to clean up the old spindle, repack the bearing with grease then refit the wheel and hope the play disappears.
