Steering head lower bearing removal

[tsears]

How do you remove the lower steering head bearing? It seems like it is pressed a long way onto the steering stem. I think maybe it's easybut I am missing somethng?

[pathfinder]

Your in a pickle

Ever used a pickle fork on ball joints? I used two apposing chisels and they did the trick rather well.

[prometheus578]

"Why... you chiseler!"

Slice the B'Jesus out of it with a cutting wheel and whack it to pieces with a chisel.

It seems like it is pressed a long way onto the steering stem

Nope... it slides nicely down the shaft.. and is only pressed the the length of the height of the bearing at the bottom.

[GNEPIG]

.. at work i have a groovy set of race removal tools, i'm not sure they would work for our bikes or not .. i have done it the same way as promie, and it works just fine.

[John]

I just use a hammer and a long drift punch, and beat the $hit outta it.

[andnew]

Here's a cool trick for this:

Measure the ID of the hole, get a couple of huge washers that will fit inside the ID of the tube but is bigger than the race. Either drop the washers in from the top, or if the upper race is in the way, cut a flat notch out of one side of the washer so it will clear the race and drop into the hole.

This gives you a very stable platform to squarely beat out the race and has worked for everyone I've ever recommended it to.

Works for the top too, but more tricky to hold it together so you can smack it.

[84xj1100]

I replaced both upper and lower on mine 2 yrs ago.

Methods included a drift (if it could reach) but more efficently a dremel tool and cutting and/or gringing wheels. Popped right out with the latter. The fun part was reassembly

As my daughter would say "good luck with that"

[John]

If you are replacing the races, make sure to cut a notch inside the steering head tube, at the race land ( the ridge that the race bottoms out on) to make it easier to drive the races out at a later date. I used a de-buring tool on a die grinder for that task.