[425954guy]

Has anybody here replaced their own wheel bearings?

I have to remove all the guts from my wheels to have them powder coated, and was wondering if there are any tricks to doing this. Is it the same old process of beating a bearing race out of a rotor or brake drum on a car?

I see the service manual calls out a tool to use to pound the bearings out, but I am wondering if anybody has accomplished this using a drift punch. Looking at the inside of the front wheel, I can't see where I'd be able to set the punch on the bearing. It almost looks like I'd have to begin with pounding one bearing INTO the wheel to knock the other one out, get the spacers out of there, then go back in from the other side and knock the first bearing out. But I'm just guessing here...

Thanks for any advice. And yes, I will be putting new bearings and seals back in the newly coated wheels.

 

[Latebraking]

You can pound out the bearings after working the spacer off center a little. Use something with a nice square edge to seat against the inner race and then tap,tap, tap. As the bearing is moved out, the spacer will move more willingly and you'll be able to walk around the inner race to more evenly remove the bearing from the bore.

Tapping them in is a little more tricky. I tap around the outside race until it is seated flush with the bore, and then carefully tap all around the outside of the race with a square-nose punch to evenly seat the bearing. The manual says to squarely seat the right (brake lever/pedal) side first, then pout in the spacer and seat the other bearing. I don't bother with putting the bearings in the freezer (anymore), and I don't notice an advantage over a room temperature bearing during installation.

 

[425954guy]

Very good advice. Thanks a lot, Latebraking! I'll give it a whirl.