850L rear wheel bearing removal

[93Bandit]

I'm changing the tires on my 83 850L and when I took the rear wheel off, I noticed the joint splines are almost gone and the wheel bearings are crunchy, so I ordered a new joint, bearings and some other things.

My question is, how do you remove the wheel bearings? Tried to drive them out with a punch with no luck. I assume I'm going to need to find a blind bearing puller somewhere?

[robertbarr]

Pit Posse bearing removal kit. Something like this

... but you should be able to find a much better price. I think I paid about $40 for my set, but that was a long time ago.

[bwringer]

Those pullers are OK, but it's a lot faster to use a long, thin punch to sort of push the spacer slightly to one side so you can thwack the inner bearing race. Once you get just a little motion, you're home free.

There's a bearing installer set at Harbor Freight that's the bee's knees for installing the new bearings. Or just bash them in with an appropriately sized socket that fits the outer races like I did for many years.

[93Bandit]

Those pullers are OK, but it's a lot faster to use a long, thin punch to sort of push the spacer slightly to one side so you can thwack the inner bearing race. Once you get just a little motion, you're home free.

There's a bearing installer set at Harbor Freight that's the bee's knees for installing the new bearings. Or just bash them in with an appropriately sized socket that fits the outer races like I did for many years.

I tried that method and it's been unsuccessful so far. I nicked the wheel where the bearing presses in so I stopped for the evening before things got out of hand. I guess need to try again, but maybe with a larger blunt punch? Or, I'll go see if the parts store has the right tool for rent.

[bwringer]

How on earth did you nick the wheel with a punch? You shouldn't be anywhere near the outer bearing race.

Insert a long thin punch from one side, through the spacer, and catch the edge of the inner race on the opposite side of the wheel. You'll need to use the punch to lever the spacer slightly to the side. You won't need a lot of force to do this (which is good because you can bend or break the punch). The nose of the punch will need to be fairly square and intact; you're using that edge at first. With a few good thwacks, the opposite bearing will begin to move and you'll have plenty of clearance to continue. Keep whacking around and around the inner race until the opposite bearing and spacer drop out.

To create that wee bit of clearance if the spacer is really stuck, you can also give the inner race of one bearing a few whacks which will shock the opposite bearing a bit and move it slightly (you're going to be replacing the bearings anyway, right?)

What's odd is that I trawled Youtube for a while and couldn't find a good video on this where they didn't do something stupid or use an expensive and slow special tool. Guess I should make a video next time.

[Burque73]

I've got a 3/8" diameter steel rod about 12" in length that worked great for this. Not sure what it came from, it was in my bucket of "hey that may be useful someday" kind of things. Surely I turned to this forum for advice beforehand, and it payed off.

Another tip I picked up from here was to throw the new bearings in the freezer so they'd shrink a bit before dropping into the wheel. I didn't measure them to see if it actually worked, but they went in without too much fuss.

[93Bandit]

How on earth did you nick the wheel with a punch? You shouldn't be anywhere near the outer bearing race.

Insert a long thin punch from one side, through the spacer, and catch the edge of the inner race on the opposite side of the wheel. You'll need to use the punch to lever the spacer slightly to the side. You won't need a lot of force to do this (which is good because you can bend or break the punch). The nose of the punch will need to be fairly square and intact; you're using that edge at first. With a few good thwacks, the opposite bearing will begin to move and you'll have plenty of clearance to continue. Keep whacking around and around the inner race until the opposite bearing and spacer drop out.

To create that wee bit of clearance if the spacer is really stuck, you can also give the inner race of one bearing a few whacks which will shock the opposite bearing a bit and move it slightly (you're going to be replacing the bearings anyway, right?)

What's odd is that I trawled Youtube for a while and couldn't find a good video on this where they didn't do something stupid or use an expensive and slow special tool. Guess I should make a video next time.

I was afraid you'd ask... I was swinging away at the inner race and my punch slid and jammed between the inner and outer race. So then it took me 30 min of getting creative to get the punch out of there, and in the process I nicked the wheel. It won't affect function and the axle spacers will hide the damage thankfully, but it hurt my soul regardless.

As for the method you described, that is exactly what I attempted. I'll give it another go and see what happens. I was also working my way around the inner race, trying to drive it out straight, but maybe I just need to get one side broke loose first?

[93Bandit]

I've got a 3/8" diameter steel rod about 12" in length that worked great for this. Not sure what it came from, it was in my bucket of "hey that may be useful someday" kind of things. Surely I turned to this forum for advice beforehand, and it payed off.

Another tip I picked up from here was to throw the new bearings in the freezer so they'd shrink a bit before dropping into the wheel. I didn't measure them to see if it actually worked, but they went in without too much fuss.

I was looking for something like that in my junk pile and well, but nothing I have is long enough. Might just need to get get a piece of steel at the hardware store and make my own tool.

[93Bandit]

I've got a 3/8" diameter steel rod about 12" in length that worked great for this. Not sure what it came from, it was in my bucket of "hey that may be useful someday" kind of things. Surely I turned to this forum for advice beforehand, and it payed off.

Another tip I picked up from here was to throw the new bearings in the freezer so they'd shrink a bit before dropping into the wheel. I didn't measure them to see if it actually worked, but they went in without too much fuss.

I was looking for something like that in my junk pile and well, but nothing I have is long enough. Might just need to get get a piece of steel at the hardware store and make my own tool.

[93Bandit]

I couldn't find anything thick and long enough in the garage to tap out the bearings so I went and got a 4' piece of 1/2" steel rod stock and used that with my 2lb sledge. I got a little more aggressive with my swings and knocked both bearings out. Thanks guys!

[93Bandit]

I couldn't find anything thick and long enough in the garage to tap out the bearings so I went and bought a 4' piece of 1/2" steel rod stock and used that with my 2lb sledge. I got a little more aggressive with my swings and knocked both bearings out. Thanks guys!