replaced front wheel bearings, still play

[thejackrabbit]

will do, as soon as the weather warms up and I can wash my bike, hopefully thursday I should be able to

[Jakobi]

Originally Posted by GasGas

Loosen pinch bolts on both sides. Tighten the axle nut pretty tight to seat the axle, then tighten the pinch bolts on the axle nut side. Then you can tighten the axle nut to the correct torque. Lastly tighten the pinch bolts on the other fork after lowering bike to floor and compressing the forks a couple cycles.

This sounds back the front. Do axle up as best as possible, then tighten the pinch bolts opposite side to the nut, and torque axle. This may result in the opposite fork binding a litte as its pulled in. Do up pinch bolts nut side and all should be seated and torqued. Release other side pinch, allow fork to unbind and fid natural position, and then retorque. Same as you did originally.

Seems you have narrowed it down to being either the new bearings were bad/out of spec, or its the axle.

[thejackrabbit]

The new bearings measured the same as the old ones.
how could the axel go bad there was no grooving on it?

[Jakobi]

If there is no play between the bearings and hub, and there is no play between the axle and the bearing.. then what does that leave?? Bearing itself.

They aren't C3/C4 bearings are they?

[thejackrabbit]

I got them from smith's power sports, they were packaged by them.
the old ones read KML 6905RS, the new ones read something similar to that, I'm 99% sure it was the KML part.

[Jakobi]

I'd be pulling the dust seals and inspecting each bearing a bit more closely.

Where are you seeing the movement? Are you feeling it click or wobble as you push at each edge of the tyre or are you just seeing a small amount of movement on the spacer (opposite brake side)?

[Coop]

Not sure where you are located but if you want a second set of eyes to diagnose let me know. I work at the airport so I am near Pittsburgh 5 days a week and can swing by sometime.

Jake has some great advice though. Follow his steps and I think you will find the problem. I would suspect a worn hub over a worn axle. The bearing face can wear if you run with bad bearings too long. I have had to use shim stock in the past on some bikes until I could replace the hub.

[thejackrabbit]

if I grab the wheel in between the forks and wiggle left and right I can fell play and I can see the spacers moving sightly by the seals

[adv rider]

Ok, Did you reinstall the spacer in the hub? That is between the bearings. I have seen these aluminum spacer worn out, from the wheel being installed. So that there is a gap between bearing and spacer. Which causes early failure of new bearings.

[Elvis74]

Are the bearing Seat ok? Maybe these are worn out.