Dangerously scary bearings and speedo gear box

The last few rides of last season I began to feel an occasional "thump" in the handle bars that was coming from the front wheel. Since it was just about to snow I stopped riding and started on the To-Do list for the winter. I am finishing up the list and was going to replace the bearings so I took off the wheel and found this below. I don't have much experience yet doing motorcycle maintanence but this seemed very bad to me. As for the gearbox can this even be fixed or rebuilt?

 

Can I just use carb cleaner to get all the crap out of the speedometer gear box?

 

Are you referring to the chip in the body of the speedo drive? If it lets dirt/water in it is a bad thing. Otherwise, that's how they look.

Can't tell anything about the wheel bearing. You need to turn it with your finger and feel for any roughness, scraping etc.

 

You should carefully disassemble the speedo drive and clean it out. Inspect for wear, replace the assembly (used is fine, just wash rinse and repeat) if you note anything worn out.
Wheel bearings are cheap enough not to mess with. Invest the dough to get new bearings and seals for the bike, they are inexpensive from Chacal.

 

I already purchased new bearings but would like some clarification on the issue. The set I purchase I assume are sealed as there is no access to the bearings themselves and so then I would assume would need no grease added. Obviously, that is not the case with the bearings that are already in the bike. The speedometer gearbox is just stuffed with dirt (as are the bearings), is there some way to seal the gearbox better than the PO did? Or does this just need to be cleaned much more often?

 

The oil seal on the wheel runs on it and should keep dirt out. That's why I asked if the housing was chipped. If the housing is broken it will keep collecting dirt.

 

Those sealed bearings are go to go as is and have enough lube in them to do the job for the life of the bearing. Those old ones were scary, the bearing cage has collapsed and the balls are all out of their correct spacing.

 

There is a lot of dirt in the gearbox and it is keeping it from turning. Is there any way to open up the speedometer gearbox in order to clean it?

 

There is a circlip that holds the drive gear in. If I recall correctly it's on the center boss.