Rear Wheel Bearing Retainer

Description

Rear Wheel Bearing Retainer | Honda CB350 / CB360 / CB450 / CB500 / CB550 / CB750

The bearing retainer is the threaded aluminum ring that locks your rear wheel bearings into the hub — and because Honda peened it in place at the factory, it rarely comes out pretty. These are high quality, tested aluminum replacements for the rear hubs across the Honda twins and fours: pick your model above and the correct retainer ships.

Why You Need This

Getting a fifty-year-old retainer out usually means drilling the peen marks, penetrating oil, and heat — and even done right, the old ring often comes out chewed up. A fresh retainer means clean threads and a proper seat for your new bearings, and you will not want to remove these twice. If you are doing rear wheel bearings, order the matching retainer with them.

Specifications

Note to CB550 owners: The 550 wheel bearing retainer is reverse threaded, as indicated by the arrow on it. Use the retainer tool to remove the old one and install the fresh one without tearing it up.

Note: This is the REAR retainer. Disc-brake front hubs use the separate front hub bearing retainer.

Installation

Difficulty: Intermediate

Honda stakes the factory retainer to the hub with punch marks so it cannot back out. To remove one: drill the peen marks ever so slightly with a sharp 1/8″ drill bit, soak with penetrating oil, heat the hub with a heat gun, then back it out with the retainer tool seated squarely — improvised tools tend to gall the holes.

Going back together, put a healthy amount of anti-seize on the threads — a clean retainer should go mostly by hand — then peen the edges in a few places with a center punch so it will not unscrew.