[Reagan40]

I started working no my wheels last night. I was getting a bit tired, so I did not try to much, but I was not able to get the old wheel bearings out. I did not try heat as I am afraid the heat may damage the finish on the wheels. I am probably being too paranoid about that. Anyway, how do you all remove wheel bearings? Any tricks to make it easy?

 

[morrow]

take a piece of metal, like a metal rod, shove it through the middle of one bearing and pound against the other...hard...around the edges. It'll come out.

 

[markmakeitso]

+1, not quite rocket science but can be rather trying. I have much better success with a soft metal drift than with other implements of destruction. A quick shot of penetrating oil (PB, Kroil, etc) might not hurt either, but isn't usually necessary.

 

[Blindstitch]

Depends which rim you do it on. I believe the rear has a retaining ring where the front doesn't.

 

[Reagan40]

Depends which rim you do it on. I believe the rear has a retaining ring where the front doesn't.

I did get the retaining ring off the rear. I tried putting a drift through the hole in one and tried to pop the opposing one off buy hitting the rear of it with the drift. It seemed like there was no way to get it to hit the back, it simply kept going out the center hole on the opposing bearing. It felt like the channel was barely as large as the center holes in the bearings, so there was no way to get behind it.

 

[Blindstitch]

Get a thinner punch that you can put at a tighter angle to find that lip. The center piece kind of floats.



If you still cant get it I believe you can take the bearing apart but you're destroying it. Not that it will be used again. Get the center ring out of there and punch out the opposite side.

 

[Reagan40]

Get a thinner punch that you can put at a tighter angle to find that lip. The center piece kind of floats.



If you still cant get it I believe you can take the bearing apart but you're destroying it. Not that it will be used again. Get the center ring out of there and punch out the opposite side.

I went at it tonight with a longer and thinner punch. I also was not as conservative as I was when I tried it before. I guess I was afraid I might break something, so I took it easy. Tonight, I was successful. The old bearings came out and the new bearings went in. I got the rear wheel mounted. According to tracking info, my All Balls steering bearings should be delivered tomorrow, so tomorrow evening I hope to get the front forks and front wheel on. This time tomorrow, I should have a rolling chasis. It is fun to see the number of parts on the floor of my garage being reduced.

 

[Shep]

Years ago I was tutored by an older Mechanic friend of mine.I couldn't get a wheel bearing out of the car we were working on.He said it needs an application of BFAI.Of course I asked what that was.He said,"Brute Force and Ignorance"<grin>

Some jobs ain't delicate