any one done a bearing change on shimano cups?? i know it says dont disassemble… but i know you lot on stw are pretty good on this sort of stuff

if you have what bearings did you replace it with. is it easy/worth it??

thanks shaun

i do it all the time.

it is very very easy with the right tools, i fyou buy a few sets of bearings from BETD they chuck in the tool free..

billy bargain

One side is easy to drift the bearings out by tapping the inside face but the other is a slightly different shaped casing but can still be done.

Just bought some new and better than Shimano bearings from BETD and they asked me to send in the cups and they did the labour for free!!

'how to' guide here:

htII bearings

Yup, just use the correct tool – BETD's one is fine. I'm running a pair of Phil Woods in one HTII at the moment, and they seem to be lasting better than the stock bearings by quite a margin. Haven't tried the BETD ones yet, but heard good reports.

i would imagine so but does this apply to hope bb's too? just worried bout all the no shim malarky

it is very very easy with the right tools, i fyou buy a few sets of bearings from BETD they chuck in the tool free..

How many sets of bearings? 🙂

anyone got this 'free' tool i could borrow or buy please?

all i got was a tweezer looking tool…for holding the bearings perhaps?

tweezers are for nasal hair..

The tweezer tool is for removing the old bearings and a diy headset press is perfect for fitting the new, just keep one of the old bearings to use as a washer/shim so the new bearings go in far enough past the outer lip of the bb cup.

Put the bearings in the freezer overnight before fitting, you'll be suprised how much they shrink and make fitting easier. If you really want to go to town put the cups in some boiling water prior to fitting to heat them up uniformly, should fall together then. If I were you though I'd do one cup at a time to ensure maximum temperature difference between the components.

HTH

😆 ah i see 😀 i shall do that

i managed to bash my bearings out with a bent screwdriver and smash them back in with some other random tools, was preety tough getting them out and no matter how hard i couldnt quitr get them all the way back in so the top hats dont sit flush against bearing, maybe 1mm gap. oh yea i cracked one of the hats too.
anyway put it all back together and bearings run smooth, will see how it goes. was a lot of faff tbh

the bearings were some cheap ebay ones, bargin if they last 6 months though..

sunday wobbler, do you speak from experince by the way?

easiest way to get them out?

Yes I speak from experience, did my XTR one prior to mayhem this year, be careful when fitting the top hats though, IMO getting them right is the hard bit.
If you've got a decent vice to male sure your the cups are 'square' when removing the old bearings you'll be fine. You should be able to do it with a normal punch/drift and hammer, take things slowly and hit each side of the old bearing in turn to ensure they come out of the cup as sqaurely as possible so as not to damage the cups.
Best thing I've found for removing the top hats from the old bearings is something like a DIY filler/putty knife, nice and thin, to slide under the top hat edge, made of decent quality material and will have a handle to 'gently' prise and remove the top hats to re-use on the new bearings. Again with these take some time and prise on both sides of the top hat so as not to damage them.

Hopefully that should point you in the right direction.

FWIW heating or cooling components to achieve easy assembly is very common engineering practice, when fitting bearings which cost thousands of pounds you want to fit it right and only once.

What do people do about the size difference between Shimano and proper bearings?

Shimano are 37x25x6 without the top hats and 37x24x8 with.
Proper bearings are 37x25x7 so would push the faces of the cranks out 1mm each side.

Enduro bearings are 37x24x7 but come with extra shields that snap into the shimano cup recess and are 1mm thick.