On Tue, 31 Jul 2007 14:25:37 -0700, 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.

On my hubs, once they were pulled from the spindle a bit of the inner
race back was exposed to the rear or inboard side. Not much, but
enough. That was true on two boat trailers and a tent camper, YMMV.