Is it easy to replace the front weel bearings
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Is it easy to replace the front weel bearings or do I need to press them out or not just want to arrange it all before I do it ?
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@rogering You can do it at home with a drift and a socket no problem
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A drift ? Sorry must be having a dumb moment lol I do have a 6 ton press but it's effort as its in back of shed take half a day to get to it lol and another half putting shit back .
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Just make sure the centre spacer is fully supported after installing new bearings or the spindle will have clamping force pulling the centre part of the bearings inwards
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@Louis-James said in Is it easy to replace the front weel bearings:
Just make sure the centre spacer is fully supported after installing new bearings or the spindle will have clamping force pulling the centre part of the bearings inwards
OK thanks Louis I will make sure mate
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What's a drift please boys lol ?
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I'm about to rip the weel off after this cuppa see
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@rogering heavy weight being tapped with a hammer works
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Ok so a drift is something to push the bearings in that is the same size as the bearing race u are trying to put in.
If you were trying to put a 20mm bearing in a 20mm hole you could use a 20mm socket to knock it nicely into place with a hammer without damaging the bearings -
I'm talking about removing them first boys but thanks for the info
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Ah I see,get a long screwdriver and put it through one bearing so it touches the inside of other bearing and slowly tap it out,make sure to move the screwdriver so the bearing comes out strait
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Also keep and clean all the seals that come out with them so u can put them back on
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I can't recommend using the suggestions provided here.
The last thing you are going to want is for the front wheel bearings to collapse down the motorway at 70+ mph.
A key point missed off the drift is that you must ensure the drift is of softer metal than the metal you are hitting.
Sockets tend to be Chromium Vandium, as such incredibly hard. You will damage the bearing long before you damage the socket.
So you want to use a soft drift, like ally, that will take the brunt force of the impact.
The wheel bearings should be pulled out using a hydraulic puller.
Using a screw driver, or drift, and tapping it out risks damaging the hub. Which will render the wheel useless.
There are ways to do it. The proper way is to heat the wheel up and use a puller to carefully extract the bearing. Most don't do this as it's a fine balance between heating and distortion.
Definitely crank cases should be heated before bearings inserted.
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Use a Brass flat edge drift if you can.
You can heat the hub, but you shouldn't have to.
The Wheel bearings are not toleranced like crank journals, for most older offroad style hubs, you can drift bearings no trouble.
Makes sure you cool the Bearing before installing them into the hub, that's when you damage the outer race,
If you have press, use that tho!
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Put the bearings for hour or so into the freezer
