Wheel Bearing Removal

[5twins]

They are sealed but depending on the year, they will have metal or rubber seals. If they're rubber, you can pop the seal off and add grease. Don't fill them all the way, it will only ooze out once they heat up, fill them about half way. If you replace them, get the 2RS (two rubber seals) type, not the "Z" or "ZZ" kind. Those are metal shields and you can't remove them to add grease.

Oh, and alfred, even though you are a king of asses and the hats they may wear, you have good tastes in hammers. I've used an Estwing in one form or another for over 30 years at work. They are the best.

 

[angus67]

yeah, the money he saved at harbor freight buying that driver set went towards a good hammer!!

 

[XSLeo]

Freezing the bearing helps, this shrinks the outer race and lets it slip into the hub easier.

 

[Steel]

- this is a little finnicky...you need to move the inner spacer to one side with a long screwdriver so that you can connect with the inner ring of the opposite bearing...carefully tap the bearing out moving around the bearing all the time so that it comes out evenly...once out, remove the spacer and the other side is a lot easier

- dont reuse bearings once youve removed them

- when installing bearings its a goood idea to prewarm the hub, press in from the outer ring only

Thanks for the input i did exactly this and it was out in no time, It makes it easier if you put pressure on end the punch contacting the bearing inner ring with a flathead screwdriver or small wrench.

 

[Crashomon]

Thank for that tip (post #5 with diagram) about using the top hat spacer to push out the first bearing. It worked great!

 

[9oh2]

Instead of buying drivers, I just busted apart the original bearings. Kept the outer rings. Hit them with the grinder until they slide in and out of the hub.

 

[cra-z1]

Instead of buying drivers, I just busted apart the original bearings. Kept the outer rings. Hit them with the grinder until they slide in and out of the hub.

Thats exactly what I do. Have a whole bunch of old bearings around. In fact I just used a perfect one to drive in some fork seals on a RD350

 

[9oh2]

Needed to borrow the swing arm from a roller, figured I’d do the wheels while I was at it. The front mag was the first wheel I needed a ‘special tool’ for the bearing removal. Just couldn’t get the spacer to cooperate.



Used a 5/8” x 4-1/4” redhead concrete anchor from Home Depot. ( can’t seem to post a pic)

 

[5twins]

Early front wheels have a hole drilled through the side of the spacer tube. With a "special tool", basically just a length of bent steel rod, you can tap the bearing out .....

If I'm doing a newer wheel that doesn't have this hole, once the spacer is out, I drill one. That way if it ever needs to come apart again in the future, it will be easy.

 

[cra-z1]

I have started using a blind hole bearing puller and works great and faster. Since the bearing has a slight rounded shape the puller will tighten up and then you can just tap the bearing out with the puller in place.
https://www.amazon.com/LainKeen-Mot...cphy=9029626&hvtargid=pla-2225407963914&psc=1