Post
by Mike Mullins » Sun Dec 14, 2008 6:33 pm
I too was in the same dilemma as the person who posted here (? or VJMC ?) about needing to pull wheel bearings but had no puller. This evening I tried a procedure that I beleive I used once before a long time ago. I stood the wheel vertically on a padded bench. I took the axle and inserted it into the bearing until the threaded end was past the inner race and the solid part contacted the inner race. Then I took a RUBBER ( as in RUBBER) hammer and began to give the end of the axle 2 good "healthy" ( as in not beating hell out of it) taps to the axle ( at 90 degrees to the axle) and repeating this in each direction 180 degrees apart. I then rotated the wheel 90 degrees and repeated the procedure, 2 healthy taps perpendicular to the axle, both directions side to side. Keep on doing this for about 5 minuts and you can feel that the bearing has started to back out. Keep on doing this for about 10 to 15 more minutes and you will have the bearing in your hand, undamaged, and your wheel undamaged. The bearing will not go back into the hole- it is not enlarged. The bearing is not harmed-it gets a lot more abuse just being run over the tar strips in the road for a hundred miles... there is just enough "angular" force on each tap to move the bearing out a little.
It works.
Moneypits ( Mike Mulllins)
