Grant Erwin wrote:

Don Foreman wrote:

On Tue, 31 Jul 2007 13:52:08 -0700, Grant Erwin
wrote:


I have a 5x10' utility trailer which I overloaded foolishly the other day,
carrying fill dirt. We emptied it, and the next time I pulled the trailer,
empty, it didn't pull correctly. It hopped, chirped, and went 'tick tick tick'.

Home it came and today I pulled off the hubs, expecting to see a cracked inner
bearing race. I actually don't see any damage at all, but now that I've got them
off, I may as well replace the bearings and seals.

I'm having trouble pulling the inner bearing races. Is there a trick?

Grant


When I packed or replaced boat trailer bearings every spring, I turned
an aluminum mandrel to press or pound out the inner race from the
inboard side of the hub. Still have the mandrel in my toolbox. I
used aluminum because I didn't have any brass of large enough
diameter.

Pounding with a brass drift works too, moving the drift after each
hit. A full-circumference mandrel and press works best because it
eliminates any tilting of the race.

Yes indeed. Except how do you get a full-diameter mandrel inside? The lip is
inside, so you'd have to turn the mandrel smaller than the ID of the lip, which
doesn't seem to work.

I've done a dodge before where I measured the OD as best I could, then turned a
disc a coupla thou smaller than that diameter. Then I measured the ID as best I
could and milled off two sides of the disc a coupla thou smaller. After
deburring, that would slip inside the tube, inside the piece to press out, then
you can fiddle with it until it sits flat. It doesn't bear everywhere since the
sides are milled off, but it worked for pulling bronze bearings from something I
was working on once. It's a lot of work, though.

Grant

You can get a "loaner" puller set at an Autozone and some other auto
parts stores, just need to leave a deposit. HF sells essentially the
same puller set as well.

Pete C.