Frustrated! Wheel bearing woes

trying to do work on my bike tonight and all of it
went terrible
tried to balance the bike on the stand.. took off the
front wheel and the bike stand unmounted and
slipped forward onto the floor
at this point I am unable to get it back onto the stand
I have it balanced upright now, till my roomate
can help me get it back onto the stand and I brace
it another way
so taking the exhaust off is out
started to "attempt" to change front wheel bearings
is there any way to do this without a bearing extractor?
or do I have to pony up the money for a tool I will
use for 30 minutes
any ideas or help would be appreciated

 

actually you would only use the tool for maybe more than a minute per wheel. it is possible to push the spacer tube to one side so you can drift out the wheel bearings but it is not as easy as using the extractor tool. I bought the tool because I have 2 bikes so I will get to use my extractor for a supposed combined time of about 5 minutes.

CN

 

You can belt them out with a screwdriver...its ugly though. Use the old bearings as a drive to tap the new freezer cooled bearings in.

 

I'm not a big fan of the bearing extractors. They work on nice clean new stuff but often have trouble with something that's been corroding in place for years.

I like to weld a bolt into one of the bearings. Then I can bang on it with a drift to get the bearing out. Once one bearing and the spacer are out it's pretty easy to get to the back of the other one. If you don't have a welder it should be pretty easy to find someone who can tack one in there.

 

After spending hours with drivers trying to punch my wheel bearings out and not getting any purchase due to the spacer, I broke down and bought the bearing extractor set chacal sells. I even bought all the different sizes should a need arise.

Consider the time spent trying to do it some other way, to the minute you'll spend using the tool. You might find more value in that.

If I was near you (I'm in washington DC) I would even offer to stop by and lend you the tool. Never hurts to help someone else out if they don't want to purchase one, and get more use out of a tool.

 

maybe someone would let me pay the cost to send it my way
via pay pal and then I just mail it back when done?
I dunno.. I doubt it is a tool I will ever use again
which is shame

 

Look in my rear wheel bearing article: http://xjbikes.com/Forums/viewtopic/t=35134.html skip past the use of the extractors.

Look at the section on removing bearings "the old school way" starting with the 16th pic in the article.

This is pic #18-- this technique will work the same, front or rear wheel. You need to displace the spacer tube enough to get a punch against the bearing on the opposite side and knock it out.

 

That was a good answer Fitz. That is how I got mine out then I used a long socket to beat out the other side. Only took a few hits.

 

your overlooking the part about hitting one side then the other. once they get cocckked there stuck

 

Fitz' way is what I'm used to. But I also know that the NAPA by me loans tools. Got a NAPA nearby?

 

I used Fitz's thread. Popped the front bearings right out. The double bearings in the rear were a pita. Couldn't get them out. Broke down and bought the tool. As Fitz states in his thread be careful not to mar the inside of the spacer. Spacer burrs will damage the shaft and not allow it to rotate properly. Roc

 

I have a mechanic friend.. I will ask him if
he has an extractor kit.. if not I will go old school
last night everything I touched turned to you know
what.. best to walk away and do no more
damage

 

The one I did for the writeup (the one I finished after Fitz did his ) came out without too much difficulty. No telling how long that one had been in there. For all I know, it was original factory. Besides, if we're replacing bearings, I would imagine it's rather unlikely that they're "nice clean new stuff".

Interesting idea. Hadn't thought of that one.

Not always possible, sad to say.

 

That was my experience too. The spacer didn't move for me like in Fitz's pic, not matter which side I tried.

Spacer doesn't rotate in operation, outer surface of the bearing moves with the wheel, the inner stays put with the rest of the axle. However, burrs could jam up the axle in the spacer, making dis-assembly/reassembly difficult. If you burr the surface, simply get a round file and file the burr off before reassembly.

 

Well not really....the fixed axle is a lot harder than the spacer and won't be scratched by it. Secondly, the wheel is of course hard against the outer bearing race which in turn rotates on the inner race, independent of spacers etc. :wink:

 

Adrian, you're correct. I don't know why I was thinking the spacer rotates on the fixed shaft. Thanks for the correction. Roc