Front wheel bearing change - pulling/pressing bearing races

Moseley · Sep 29, 2013

Hi folks,

My drivers side front inner wheel bearing has just shat itself in a big way (a week into bus ownership!), so I've got it stripped down to change both inner and outer and clean out all the swarf from the brake drum.

So, the inner race of the outer bearing just slides out, but everything else was a bit tighter. I didn't make any effort to try to take the inner race of the inner bearing off, or either of the 2 outer races, but is this something that can be done with workshop tools, or do these need to be removed / pressed in place with specialist equipment? I have some 3 legged bearing pullers, but nothing else specifically for bearings. These have proved to be a bit useless in the past where there is limited space under the bearing, or not much to grip on to. Or do they just need a bit of a clout with a hammer and chisel?!

Advice appreciated for anyone who's done this.

yackaboo · Sep 29, 2013

If you have drum brakes you will find that once you clean all the grease out from inside the space between the inner and outer bearings there should be a couple of small cutouts in the inner flange faces 180 degrees apart where the outer diameter bearing races sit, you use some steel rod or bar ( or screwdriver) and rest it in the cut out slot and give the back of the bearing a clout then do the same to the opposite side and the race should move, once one bearing is done, turn drum over and do the other one.

Hope that make sense.. :roll:

Mike

Should add as well, keep alternating from one cut out to the other, otherwise the bearing might twist as you are knocking it out and jam in the bore.

Moseley · Sep 29, 2013

Pretty sure that makes sense! Unfortunately I haven't got it in front of me as it failed outside my work, so I limped into the workshop there so will try and take a look tomorrow.

When it comes to removing the inner bearing - it looks like it sits on a tapered spindle, so should be pretty easy to shock of, or give it a bit of heat to make it budge.

But what about re-assembling the 2 races into the drum? Do they just have a cutout so just need carefully pressing / tapping them in until they're home?

Toad · Sep 29, 2013

"But what about re-assembling the 2 races into the drum? Do they just have a cutout so just need carefully pressing / tapping them in until they're home?"

Yep!

Moseley · Sep 29, 2013

Sweet, sounds like it's a bit more DIY-able than modern cars that require a lot more force to push bearings in and out. I guess they don't need to be when you can adjust the preload on them manually!

Cheers for the quick responses. 8)