Bosch Gen4 Seal Service & Grease up

[RustyMTB]

I made a quick vid on how to save your motor. Hear me speak! In HD!

 

[Bummers]

Nice one!!

 

[The EMF]

That’s good to know………
Nice upload, great stuff

 

[Ark]

I bought a park tools crank extractor because all the vids say you need one for bosch..

Then I looked at my pedals lol..... oh whyte use self extracting cranks


BTW, What's the tool called that has the blue handle and basically a hook for removing stuff?

Good video apart from the camera work

 

[RustyMTB]

It's just a pick tool & yep, camera work a bit of an aftethought, the GoPro on the chesty & stray left hand not the most helpful but hopefully the main stages are clear. It was Pete the @Bearing Man who impressed the importance of this job onto me. I'm forever grateful to him.

 

[Zimmerframe]

camera work a bit of an aftethought

Nice job !

I thought the camera work created an air of suspense and intrigue at times, with the right music and a bit or work on the lighting it would feel a bit Hitchcock..... What's happening behind the arm .... da da darrr ... It's a SEAL , a SEAL ! Where's he lubing ? It's not one of those types of films is it dear ?

 

[RustyMTB]

I don't think Wes Anderson is losing any sleep

 

[RiderOnTheStorm]

@RustyMTB Good work with the video! Short and sweet!

From your experience, how frequently do you actually replace the bearing seals? In other words how many miles (km) do you ride doing only the grease service before the bearing protection rings are worn and must be replaced?

 

[RustyMTB]

I think you'd judge it each time. The seals themselves are aluminium or steel with rubber covers bonded on to them. They don't wear quickly at all whereas the grease does disperse over time. Can't give a straight answer other than to say my bike has 2k on the clock & I've replaced them once & they're doing fine.

 

[RiderOnTheStorm]

Thanks, that's good to know. I'll keep an eye on mine and keep greasing away!!

 

[Sander23]

I do this regularly as I do like to wash my bike alot to keep it clean.

It's not that easy as mine has this very stupid pointy circlips with no holes in em wich are very hard to remove

 

[RustyMTB]

I mention that in the video. The drive side circlip is a different design from the non drive side, on my bike it has bevelled edges which make it awkward to handle. I bought a pair of cheap pliers & ground the tips at an angle to match specifically for the job.

 

[bazxa]

RustyMTB great post, none of the ususal youtube production BS or click bait.​

 

[RustyMTB]

I made a follow up video, closer to the action so you can actually see what I'm doing. Don't get excited, the production values are worse than ever but at least my hand isn't in the way, spoiling all the fun.

 

[bazxa]

It's gotta work for me, I have the same green bike!!

 

[Ken]

I made a quick vid on how to save your motor. Hear me speak! In HD!

Hi Rusty, thanks for the inspiration/motivation.
Done the non drive side but would appreciate a pic of your modified pliers for use on the non Drive side snap ring. thanks.

 

[RustyMTB]

Sure. They're some cheapy Amazon or Ebay circlip pliers. I've added the drive side circlip so you can see what I'm talking about. The bevelled edges of the circlip itself tends to make the pliers ping off as you exert force on it, whereas on the NDS, the circlip has a v shaped indentation so that your pliers stay in place. It is a poor design.

If you struggle to remove this in one move, I've found an effective technique is to get one side out of its slot & onto the spindle, where it will stay, then go in for a second try. Once you have the circlip out of it's groove, it's just a matter of expanding it sufficiently to pull it off the spindle, taking care not to mar the thread on the spindle that your lock ring relies on.

 

[Ken]

Thanks Rusty, Used all the techniques you suggested and both sides now refreshed. The NDS snap ring pinged off at first attempt and I enlisted my hawk eyed wife to find it among the multi crap in the garage. Progress on the DS was halted by the chainring being virtually welded to the shaft. It has done over 5000mls and much levering was needed to free the micro splines.
cheers, Ken.

 

[Tony4wd]

My Cube is 2 years old so I've ordered the seal kit after seeing this thread - seems like a good idea to keep water out of the motor.
Is there a similar process for the Shimano EP8?

 

[RustyMTB]

Wouldn't know about Shimano motors. Might be something online somewhere. Otherwise, I did this for a friend last week on a Trek with 1000 miles on the clock & the drive side seal cover had separated from the metal inner, so worth checking regularly imo.

 

[Stihldog]

Adding this to my service interval. Thanks for the tip(s) and showing how easy it can be. I’ll definitely keep an extra seal kit close by after I do this service.

 

[Stihldog]

My Cube is 2 years old so I've ordered the seal kit after seeing this thread - seems like a good idea to keep water out of the motor.
Is there a similar process for the Shimano EP8?

Do you happen to know the part # of the seal kit? (or a link). My local Trek dealer can’t seem to find it.

Maybe it was mentioned here.

 

[Tony4wd]

I've ordered it through my LBS, but here are the details including part# : Bosch Service Kit Protection Ring BDU4xx | Drive Unit Spares for sale

 

[Stihldog]

I've ordered it through my LBS, but here are the details including part# : Bosch Service Kit Protection Ring BDU4xx | Drive Unit Spares for sale

That should be helpful. Thanks

 

[Peaky Rider]

I've been inspired by Rusty's video to service my seals, but those advertised on Ebay etc seem to have conventional circlips rather than the snap rings shown in the video.
Is this a sensible upgrade adopted Bosch or am I looking at the wrong part?

 

[RustyMTB]

Can you lionk the Ebay listing? Far as I am aware, the only source of kits is Bosch & their distributors eg. The Ebike motor centre etc. So I'm wondering if there are knock offs circulating.

 

[Peaky Rider]

Can you lionk the Ebay listing? Far as I am aware, the only source of kits is Bosch & their distributors eg. The Ebike motor centre etc. So I'm wondering if there are knock offs circulating.

This is the advert from one of my local bike shops. The illustration seems to be a generic one used in many ads. I'm guessing Bosch realised their snap rings were pigs to get out so switched to conventional circlips.

Bosch Bearing Protection Ring Service Kit (BDU4XX)

Bosch Bearing Protection Ring Service Kit (BDU4XX) One Colour £26.65

www.jejamescycles.com

Thanks
PR

 

[RustyMTB]

That looks much easier to live with! And JE James is obviously a wholly reputable retailer, so it looks like maybe all the techs moaned at Bosch until they changed the circlip. In the instructions Bosch provide, they go out of their way to mention you should only use the circlip pliers illustrated in the document & I couldn't ever find any.

 

[Peaky Rider]

My Rail has done 2000 miles in the damp Derbyshire Dales so a service kit is on the way and I'll be using a pair of Screwfix circlip pliers.

 

[Bones]

Freshly delivered from James and one of each circlips