wheel bearing

[dave1shere]

Hello all. I am in the process of bead blasting and polishing my front and rear wheels will repaint the black area with a flat black and polish the aluminum areas to a good shine. my question is how do you remove the wheel bearings the book says to say take a soft punch and punch them out hitting only on the outer race of the bearing. On a trailer hub I am able to reach in with a punch and pop the bearing out on these wheels however because of the spacer in the middle you’re not able to drive them out. Am I reading this wrong can you punch both of them out from one side. On the rear wheel the steel hub in the middle can it be pressed out or would that not be advisable. thank you all for any help.

[Pat Kelly]

You should be able to move the middle spacer to one side a bit and (using the drift) tap the bearing out a bit. Move the spacer to access another spot on the bearing and tap another spot out. Work your way back and forth until the bearing drops out.

[dave1shere]

thanks for the suggestion.I've tried to move the spacer back in enough to get a punch to the inner race of the bearing. I can't seemed to move it enough to even get the punch on it . I wonder how they do it at the bike shops. thanks again for your suggestions.
Dave.

[Ken Talbot]

I had this problem just a while back too. I got past it by sliding a large punch about 3/4 of the way down, then whacking the top end of the punch sideways. That put enough of a sideways push on the other end of the punch to pop the spacer over enough to get started. It appears that spacer really get clamped in there tight from many years of cranking on the big axle nut. Don't be bashful - hit it with some authority.

[dave1shere]

Thank you for your suggestions. I finally got out by using the long punch but I did ruin the bearing in the process. I probably need to replace them anyway. the hardest part was trying to move the bearing enough to be able to push the Bush in to one side or the other. But once I got past that part it was simple.

[skids]

Right. I don't see how you can remove the bearings without damaging them. . .

Originally posted by dave1shere
I finally got out by using the long punch but I did ruin the bearing in the process. I probably need to replace them anyway.