Trying to take the old bearings out of my Hustler as they are shot.

I can get to the inner race from the back through the centre of the opposite bearing and I have tried drifting it out but all I seem to be doing is smashing the bearing up and not budging the outer from the frame.

Tips?

Get a 5 😉

Hit it harder or look for a proper bearing puller.

you need proper tools IME
bearing puller etc

What you need is some threaded bar, an appropriate sized socket, some big washers, some nuts that fit the threaded bar and a couple of spanners. That’ll shift anything.

Anecdotally Hustlers are particularly difficult to get the bearings out of.
I bet kaesae has done one, email him and he might have some tips.

Read this Mtbr thread for some ideas

I just got all my bearings out of my Reign using a combination of different techniques, the best of which is the quick release and sockets combo.
Just waiting on Kaesae to send me some bearings now……..

Yar. Get a socket the right size, that’s almost as good as a drift. It was the only way I could change the shock bushes on my Cake.. needed those too often for me to take it to the LBS.

Not sure how I can get a socket to pass through the centre of the opposite bearing. Im using an 8mm allen key as a drift as that the largest thing I can get through the bearing!

Oh yeah.. didn’t think of that.

Carefull tapping with a screwdriver. You could also apply gentle heat because alu expands more than steel, but only extremely gentle. You might get better results using ice or something cold perhaps before bashing.

Right.. saga continues.

After a helpful spray of shock-and-unlock and a good bash with the largest drift I could get in, the bearings have both fallen apart leaving the outer firmly fixed in the frame. FUBAR.

What next? New frame?!

You will need to get a screw diver in and tap it out.

Assuming the “heat the frame and cool the bearing” Haird dryer and ice Combo won’t let you pry it out thenit’s starting to look like Dremel time. Think denistry, or better yet, brain surgery.

I took a blow torch to my Reign after the same happened to mine. Screwed the paint but that was the reason they need to come out (new paint job) so it didn’t matter.

Once heated they came out so easy it made me wonder what the hell I had been doing for the last hour or so trying to drift it out.

So if I go down the heat route, do I aim the heat at the frame or the bearing?

The frame although you will heat the bearing as well. The aim is to get more heat into the frame as that will expand quicker than the steel bearing race.

Jusy heat for a while, either intensly with a low heat or lightly with a high heat and then just try knocking the race out. If it doesn’t work heat a little more and try again.

As I previously alluded, heat the frame to expand the aluminium (the bearing will get hot as well, no avoiding that). Press something nice and cold against the bearing race to draw the heat out of the steel causing it to contract. That’s the most additional freedom you’re going to obtain without getting medieval.

Can you get a (very) good welder to tig a ring of weld onto the race? When it cools it will contract and ‘shrink’ the bearing. Common practise in some motor workshops for removing Golf wheelbearings I’m told.

Push the boat out and buy a new frame, you know you want to 😉

http://www.rapidracerproducts.com/BPET.htm

Nice looking tool, but I dont think it would work with the type of problem I have!

Its at the machine shop now 🙁

That RRp tool looks nice but is sooo expensive, must be aimed at workshops. A bit of dremel or other cheaper hobby drill action would get the outer race out.

I want the RRp tool sooooooooo much now 🙂

I love tools 🙂

where can you get those rrp tools. anyone online stock then, can’t find one and like bazzer i want one bad

^ UK bikestore IIRC, some threaded bar fir the press bit will save you buying the actual tool, then just buy the kit you need.

threaded bar 😯

you don’t quite get it do you

it’s anodised man

I’ve just removed my pivot bearings for a tooling cost of £1.50. big bolt and a few nuts and washers, using the old small bearings as bolt guides for pressing out the larger ones. I was sitting looking at my crank extractor which cost about £7 thinking someone is missing a trick here!

I use bearing extractors and presses, however there are a lot of good techniques you can do using a vice.

Removal

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4SJ3zdYZt80[/video]

Installation

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHPsh-ALqJA[/video]

Cove frames are very similar kona’s

Here’s a rubbish guide for the specialized epic.

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u42Ju5WNwyU[/video]

😯 🙄 😀

Here’s a good way to check your bearings condition.

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOiZtc4RsM8[/video]

Speaking of servicing frames I better get to work, hopefully this will be of some help!

bigjim – Member
That RRp tool looks nice but is sooo expensive, must be aimed at workshops.

The tool is damned expensive in the 1st place (£49) and then you have to buy the ‘fitting’ for your each bearing sizes (16 available) individually @ £20 a piece… It does look kinda special though doesn’t it MMMMMmmmmm.

http://www.rapidracerproducts.com/

if the outer race is stuck in, there is nothing holding it in (no pressure from inner race and bearing structure) and you should be able to tap that out with a screwdriver. I had a bearing collapse mid-removal from a Nomad, but the outer race tapped out with a screwdriver with no problem.

Heat is the key. tie a rag around it and pour hot water over it -( the frame)

The tool is damned expensive in the 1st place (£49) and then you have to buy the ‘fitting’ for your each bearing sizes (16 available) individually @ £20 a piece… It does look kinda special though doesn’t it MMMMMmmmmm.

It does look nice, but those little handles make me think it might struggle on a really stuck in bearing.

X Tools or someone are missing a trick here, if a crank extractor can cost a few quid, a bearing extractor shouldn’t cost much more to cover the different bearing fittings. And i reckon mtb bearings now out number mountain bikers!

You could try one of those expanding metal rawl / anchor bolts for concrete.

Thread the screw in to the expander wedge until the wedge grips the bearing outer (inner surface) and then tap out from the other side. You just need the wedge to expand enough to grip the bearing.

Might depend on what size bearing as to which size anchor bolt would work?

just taken delivery of the RRP bearing tool

10 minutes after opening the envelope all 16 bearings on the wife’s ventana were fitted (i’d already drifted out the old ones)

very nice bit of kit.

Wish I’d bought the kit. I’ve just replaced the bearings (Cheers Kaesae) on my 2007 Giant Reign, what a ball-ache, messing about with a vice, QR, threaded bar, sockets and various other bits and pieces.

Well worth doing though, turns out 6 out of 8 crunchy as hell, one completely stuck to the pivot.(2nd hand frame)

I’ve had to use the rebound on the shock to bring it all under control as the rear is much more active now. I found that the rear appeared to be packing down before.

Coupled with a firmer spring in the Lyrik and my bike feels fresh as a daisy now. Looking forward to giving it a wupping, tomorrow morning 🙂

😀