Driving a Bearing Race

I'm sure I'm not the only person to come up with this but thought it might be useful to someone else.

I don't have a hydraulic press. When I need to replace bearing races in a wheel hub, I tap the race in with a block of wood and a hammer. Once the race is flush with the hub and I can't use the block of wood anymore, I switch to a socket of the appropriate size to tap the race until it is fully seated.

Today, I was replacing bearing races on a trailer and didn't have an appropriate socket. The race is 3" OD, bigger than my socket set. What to do?

After walking around my shop for a couple of minutes brainstorming I remembered that the old bearing race that I just removed is exactly 3" OD. But If I drive the new race in using the old race, the old race will get stuck in the bore. I was trying to figure out how I would then remove the old race when I came up with the solution.

I cut a slit in the old race with a cut off wheel in my angle grinder. With that little slice of metal removed, I can compress the old race to get it out. It worked perfectly. I don't think I'll ever use an almost-the-right-size socket again.

Nice problem solving skills....amazing how the mind works sometimes.... That will.nell.so!some down TBE road for sure ...

Try putting the new race in the deep freeze next time for a while before pounding it in.

This works well.We use dry ice pellets a lot at work for the same reason. A few thousandths makes a world of difference.

A set of aluminium bearing and race drivers works pretty nice too.

How do yo remove new wheel bearing from Spindle ?without Destroying it , never been able to figure that one out, The metal is so soft

if you did a bunch of them

https://www.otctools.com/products/otc-hub-grappler%E2%84%A2

How do you get a new Wheel bearing of the spindle without destroying it ? The metal is so Soft, Thank You

Why are you taking apart a new bearing?

If I can get a socket to contact the race from the back side, I use a socket extension and tap that with a hammer. Real slow.

If I can't get a socket to touch the edge of the bearing race, I tap it out from the other side using a cold chisel with the sharp edge ground flat. I work my way around the race and tap-tap-tap-tap until it's free. It can be tricky to do this without the chisel touching the hub. It's slow going but it's worked for me.

maintenaceguy...

What type of job do you have?

Came off

The Bearing not the race

Bronze punches help. To get the old races out you can weld them, just let them cool off before you start to hit them.

It’s the Bearing that’s stuck

To replace a leaking wheel seal. I used to deal with it all the time on garbage trucks. Truck bearings run in oil, not grease. I kept a shelf full of new bearings and put new bearings in every time I replaced the seal. Not worth messing with the old bearing. And zero bearing crush. No tolerance.

It’s a New Bearing

Beat it off and put on a new one. They're very close tolerance. Is this on your personal vechile or the company you work for?
Only thing that might work is if it's in a place you can heat it up to expand.

Been using the handle "maintenanceguy" on the internet for 20+ years - back when I was a maintenance guy for commercial properties - facilities maintenance. Then I became the maintenance guy's supervisor for several years. Now I'm the maintenance guy's supervisor's supervisor and I sit in a big office building, protected from the public by my own secretary who has an office between me and the rest of the building. I write reports and have meetings with people in suits. I make sure we're following all the government regulations, and I write notices of non-compliance for contractors, and sign requisitions, and add up columns of numbers, and do other utterly useless things. The pay is pretty good but I really miss turning wrenches.

You have my sympathy.

could always tack weld a rod to the bearing and use a slide hammer

Your right Gary even thought it’s new out of the box , just destroy the new Bearing and grease seal and start over

To get the old race out, I weld a bead around the inside of it. Once cooled off it will most of the time fall out by itself . The now smaller race can be used to tap the new one in.
I think they call it throwing to stones at a bird ... or something like that

When I was still an apprentice ( moby dick was but a minnow in them days ) we did this with semi trailer bearings , then tip the drum open end down and go get a coffee then sit on the work bench and wait for the " ting" when the bearings dropped to the concrete floor.

nice.

Putting the race in the deep freezer for a few hours really does work good.

Or if in a hurry, 5 minutes in dry ice