gs450l bearing outer race stuck in front wheel

[Guest]

so im replacing the bearings in the front wheel cause they're nasty, corroded, and making a lot of noise
i was able to pop out one of them very easily, but the bearing on the side of the wheel that the speedo puck goes on fell apart.
the outer race is stuck in its hole, and i cant pound it out from the other side.

what tool do i use to get this thing out, preferably without destroying the wheel? i thought about a bearing puller, but there's literally no gap for a blind puller to get under.

[Grimly]

I have an old round chisel with a deformed spreaded end that just manages to catch on the bearing outer and by working it around with small blows, the outer will come out eventually. Sometimes heating the bearing housing will be necessary. If you're lucky, there may be a notch ground in the inner shoulder of the bearing seat (inside the wheel) that allows a thin podger to get into the remaining race.

[Suzukian]

Do you have access to a milling machine? We used to just use an end mill to mill to the edge of the outside bearing race, on Helicopter transmission casings, when your within 0.002"" it will collapse inwards. You can do the same thing with a Dremel tool, just be very careful not to hit the outside (into the rim). If you use a Dremel tool, you will find as you get very close, you can probably collapse it in with a very good, big punch (make sure it has a sharp edge, a flat, sharp edge, round, not a "chisel") so it can bite into the edge of the bearing. This will make it collapse, after you Dremel off a large part of it.

[Rijko]

If you have access to a welder, lay 2 welds on the race, 1" long on opposite sides.
When the weld cools it will shrink the race and if it does not simply fall out,
a screwdriver will probably pry it out easy.

Or weld a piece of metal across the race so you have something to hit to drive it out,
but that's hardly ever needed as the welds alone will do the job 99% of the time.

[Suzukian]

That'll work.

[Guest]

i was able to use a dremel with a reinforced cut wheel to make enough of a slot on the backside to get a screwdriver in from the opposite side and pound it out that way. new bearing went in with no trouble at the same depth as the previous one

[Rijko]

Cool, you got it fixed

[Suzukian]

I'm happy the Dremel tool worked. I've used that method many times. Those Dremel tools can be worth their weight in gold sometimes. Glad you got it out.

[roeme]

I was just about to suggest the dremel route as well, but I gotta say, the welding one I quite like too.

[Suzukian]

When I did this kind of work for a living, the transmission housings were made of Magnesium, so you could not use anything that sparked, or gave sparks. Welding was out of the question. Dremel tools were out. Carbide End Mills, plunging at 0.002" at each time, with a 1" column of coolant was all you could use, and Carbide End Mills will cut through a bearing race. This is how Sikorsky Aircraft does it on their transmissions housing, on all models, when they rebuild them. The races are also bonded in with a proprietary bonding agent. For any other metal, if you have a welder, I too would think that would make quick work of it.

[salty_monk]

The Pit posse extractor is really good & pretty cheap... With our small axles you can approximate something like it using a "red head" type wedge anchor bolt from Home Depot....