Rear wheel bearings and seals

[Snaggletooth]

Ok, I pulled the rear a while wheel a while back and cleaned up the hub splines and when I was working on that I notice a tick in the rear bearings. I ordered the bearings, seals and a new o-ring and now I'm into the replacement.

 

A local shop offered to install the bearings for $5.00 per side and I figured fair enough. Save me some time. When I took the wheel in today they took one look at it and said they could not do that type of set up. At least they were honest about it.

 

So here I am looking at my rear wheel. The manual is vauge in the statement to push the spacer aside and drive out the bearing. First, the spacer don't move far enough to the side to get a good bite on the bearing from either side. I'm using a 5/16 brass flat nose punch to do this. I was able to pull out the larger seal and retainer ring on that side but it looks like I need to drive out the larger bearing from the smaller side to remove the smaller seal from that side.

 

Which side do I start from and how is the smaller seal removed?

 

Any suggestions will help.

 

Mike

[bongobobny]

OK one side is a regular sealed roller bearing unit, the right side, and the left side is a needle bearing asembly, which can be a real bear to remove!!! All I can say is good luck, and expect to totally destroy the needle bearing by removing it. Sometimes they will pop out with minimum problems, and other times they won't! I have a perfectly good rim that I am going to have to cut the race out to get it out!!

 

Start with removing the larger, right side one first. Pry the seal out on both sides before you try beating the bearings out...

[Snaggletooth]

Heya Bongo.

 

Yeppers, that's my biggest problem. The center spacer is loose but will only move to the side about a 1/16 of an inch. No room to get a bite with the punch on the race of either bearing. Like I said the bigger seal came out like it should but that smaller on is recessed in and it's nuts trying to get it out.

 

I don't care if I total the bearings getting them out, I have new ones waiting to go in. But the old one got to go.

[gatracer]

Try Auto Zone, they have a tool loan program which wiil allow you to get the correct tool for the job for free. You need a zero clearance bearing removal set. It will make the job a snap and you won't destroy anything.

[Marcarl]

I used a long steel punch, well flattened on the end so that it was sharp, went in from the one side and had no luck, so I hammered at the other side instead and low and behold the bearing came out, then the spacer came out and the other side is now a piece of cake. Brass is too soft to do such a thing, it won't keep it edge long enough,, but hey, if they rent a tool to do the job,, that's even better.

[Squeeze]

Buy or borrow a Bearing Puller Set for blind Holes.

[Snaggletooth]

Well that was interesting! Finally got it back together and the wheel, drive shaft and final are back on the bike.

 

Stopped by an old friends shop that has been in the automotive repair business for 30 some odd years and showed him what I had. Told him what tools had been suggested and he didn't click on the names but showed me what he had. He had a gizmo that slides down inside (the roller bearing) and tightens outward by tightening a nut and it grips the inside of the bearing. Then using a slide hammer to pull the bearing out. And I don't want to make this sound simple as it took many resets of the puller and a LOT of hammering to get the puppy loose let alone out all the way. Once it hit the floor it was a piece of cake to knock out the needle bearing. Well the neeedles and cage any way then another half hour getting the race out.

 

Pressed in the new bearings after a clean up and inspection and sealed it up. No more tick. He broke out a bottle of single malt to mark the event. My kind of guy!

 

Stopped at the bike shop that had backed out to the offer to install the bearing before and thanked the guy for being honest and talked about how we got er done. He had never done one like this and knew it was a PITA by looking at it. He threw the wheel on the spin balancer and adjusted the weight and said "no charge". What's going on with the world? The man who solved by biggest problem of the week pours single malt and the man who refused to do the job in the first place don't charge for a balance job.

 

Maybe there is hope for mankind after all. It was a good day.

 

Now to finish putting this jigsaw puzzle of bike that is spread though my garage, basement and storage space and maybe, just maybe I'll be riding by Memorial Day.

 

Thanks for your advice guys.

[coffy]

Well that was interesting! Finally got it back together and the wheel, drive shaft and final are back on the bike.

 

Stopped by an old friends shop that has been in the automotive repair business for 30 some odd years and showed him what I had. Told him what tools had been suggested and he didn't click on the names but showed me what he had. He had a gizmo that slides down inside (the roller bearing) and tightens outward by tightening a nut and it grips the inside of the bearing. Then using a slide hammer to pull the bearing out. And I don't want to make this sound simple as it took many resets of the puller and a LOT of hammering to get the puppy loose let alone out all the way. Once it hit the floor it was a piece of cake to knock out the needle bearing. Well the neeedles and cage any way then another half hour getting the race out.

 

Pressed in the new bearings after a clean up and inspection and sealed it up. No more tick. He broke out a bottle of single malt to mark the event. My kind of guy!

 

Stopped at the bike shop that had backed out to the offer to install the bearing before and thanked the guy for being honest and talked about how we got er done. He had never done one like this and knew it was a PITA by looking at it. He threw the wheel on the spin balancer and adjusted the weight and said "no charge". What's going on with the world? The man who solved by biggest problem of the week pours single malt and the man who refused to do the job in the first place don't charge for a balance job.

 

Maybe there is hope for mankind after all. It was a good day.

 

Now to finish putting this jigsaw puzzle of bike that is spread though my garage, basement and storage space and maybe, just maybe I'll be riding by Memorial Day.

 

Thanks for your advice guys.

Hi .been reading your post with the dilema you had with the needle bearing, I had a local machinist push them out, my only problem now is i am not sure which way to push needle bearing back in, as it has a seal built into one end of it, does the seal end go in first which i imagine it does, or does seal end go in last , ceetainly do hope you can answer my question for me,

Regards John

[Blaze2guns]

Why can't this be on a video 😭

[Marcarl]

Hi .been reading your post with the dilema you had with the needle bearing, I had a local machinist push them out, my only problem now is i am not sure which way to push needle bearing back in, as it has a seal built into one end of it, does the seal end go in first which i imagine it does, or does seal end go in last , ceetainly do hope you can answer my question for me,

Regards John

 

If memory serves me correct, the OEM needle bearing does not come with a seal, but does have a separates seal that goes on after the bearing. If that be the case for you and the bearing has a seal already attached then I would set it so that the attached seal goes to the inside, with the separate seal going to the outside. I believe that the roller bearing is sealed from one side only, and that should be on the outside, to keep water and dirt separate from the grease.

[Marcarl]

Why can't this be on a video 😭

 

There can be, all you need to do is become a full fledged member (a messily $12) take a vid of your proceedings and then post it. The way to do that is to post it to utube and then post a link here. If it's a good one and is helpful, then we can add it to the tech library.