Hey everyone. My Hornet has 78,000 on the clock and I'm thinking its probably time to do the wheel bearings before a long trip at xmas with my son on the back.
I've been looking everywhere here and the workshop manual as well, but I still can't nut out the best way to remove the old bearings.
I've found on here the freeze/heat method and using the old bearing over the new one and tap gently with a hammer to install them, but nothing on removing them.
Does anyone know how, and have any other hints?
Thanks, Scott.
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It is very easy. I use a long 1/2" extention to go through to the wheel and tap it with a hammer. This will only work if the bearing is still in one piece. If the inner of the bearing is gone, you'll need to weld a bolt onto the outer race. For installing I've always used a big socket to tap on. It has to be big enough to make the outer race. 1 1/4" iirc.
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A point about replacing bearings nobody has touched on yet -- heat is your friend. Up to a point, that is. The easiest way to remove the old bearings is to heat the hub of the wheel first. The most effective way to do this is with near boiling water poured over the hub immediately before knocking out the first bearing, the most difficult to do because the center spacer is in the way, turning the wheel over and using a long drift and hammer to work the bearing out. I have done this and when the wheel was turned over the bearing came out by itself! The other side can be done the same way and again comes out with little or no urging.
Installation can be done the same way, but using a heat gun instead of water -- just remember to keep the hot air stream moving constantly to prevent excessive temperature differentials. Wet your finger to test the temperature -- it should feel quite hot, but not sizzle when touched. Once hot the bearing fresh from the freezer should drop right in.
One last point -- the center spacer is made about 0.005" longer than the distance from one bearing seating face to the other in order to prevent side loads whan the axle in torqued down, so if the second bearing is driven in by the outer race only you are applying a thrust load to the bearing. This can shorten the life of the bearing if not remedied by tapping on the inner race on either bearing. If, however, a flat driver pushing against both races is used and a second one is backing up both races of the other bearing it will stop as soon as the inner race contacts the spacer tube. Again, if the hub is heated the bearing usually drops right in with little effort.
It's a small point, but those small points are sometimes the most important.
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That's handy to know Rob. When saying "tap" on the inner race of the bearing, is this a light hammer blow or something similar, or just use a flat surface to drive the 2nd bearing in that contacts both inner and outer races, like the axle spacer maybe?
Something I was thinking about that could probably be included here and maybe someone could possibly answer as well is, I read in another thread something by LDH mentioning stiction of bearings when torquing axle bolts and how this creates drag and shortens the life of wheel bearings, therefore one should not torque up axle bolts and only tighten till the point of drag on the back wheel.. I did an experiment with a pull scale, similar to what you could weigh fish with etc, and pulled on the rear brake rotor At correct torque of the axle I got 2 kg of pulling force needed, and as I back off the wheel nut, I can get it down to 1 kg of force required but boy does the axle feel loose.
Although I'm probably just confusing things further......
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I come from the land Down Under, Where the women blow and the men thunder!!
Some basics to keep in mind re guiding what to do and what not to do.
The bearing race that has any level of interference fit is the race to be worked when installing.
A big bearing no no is to have install force being seen by the balls and grooves.
So, if it's an OD interference fit bearing, NEVER work the inner race.
The opposite holds true for an ID interference fit bearing.
For the front and rear axles, the idea when torquing the axle is to apply a clamping force to a firm stack of components.
A firm stack means the inner races are nicely mating up to the inside spacer end faces.
A problem arises when one has a soft stack with some clearance left and then torques the end nut.
The inner races use up the bearing's internal clearances in order to "find" the spacer end faces. One can end up with an axially preloaded bearing that will run hot from day one and not yield a good life.
I'm thinking that one do a super light coating of molydi in the aluminum bore, do the bearing installs, nip up the inner race/spacer/inner race stack with a piece of ready-rod with nuts and washers, then do some heat on one side to let one outer race float a bit. Something like that.
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