Quick question on spacer on rear axle

I'm at the tailend of replacing my rear wheel bearings in my XJ550 Seca. I'm only changing these because I had the rear wheel off and at 20K miles, I figured I might as well replace them. I suspect unfortunately that they were replaced by the last owner, but what the hell... I had bought replacements from XJForever. Anyways, I followed BigFitz's tutorial at http://xjbikes.com/Forums/viewtopic/t=3 ... rings.html

The one question I have is, now that I've installed the 2 sets of bearings in the rear wheel, the spacer (with flange) is still able move a bit in there. That's OK isn't it? I don't mean turn, I mean sideways. Of course, once the axle is installed through there, it can't move much, but I wanted to make sure the play does not indicate that I did not seat my bearings all the way. The set on the right is recessed 1-2mm from the hub, and the ones on the left are flush.

I'll wait for a response before I throw the wheel back on.

And frankly, I'm proud I got through this! I mean, it wasn't that hard, but the first time you do anything (by yourself), the more challenging it is.

Oh, and it engine degreaser the wrong thing to use to clean a chain when it's off the bike?

 

It COULD mean that the bearings aren't seated, but very often the spacer will move about even though everything else is fine. So long as it doesn't actually rattle sideways (like with a 2-3mm end gap), it's okay if it does not support itself. It can be annoying, but when I used to do roadside puncture repairs years ago it was not uusual.

Engine deagreaser ? Well if you have an o-ring chain then depending on the brand of degreaser it might be an issue, but I would imagine most brands are not too caustic. You can buy dedicated chain cleaner though. My query is why you would want to clean the grease off when mainly you want to keep the lubricant on there... Personally I wouldn't have the degreasant near my o-ring chain for any longer than was needed to remove sand and grit and then I would probably use paraffin and then oil it again as quickly as possible afterwards, but I know others take a different approach.