A specialized tool called a bearing puller or pilot bearing puller used in wheel bearing replacement is a popular type of puller that pulls up the chuck inserted into the bearing's inner ring. This type of puller requires a body that stands on two legs, and it can be difficult to use if the foothold is unstable. In such cases, a convenient remover is a type that inserts a wedge-shaped screwdriver from the opposite side of the desired bearing and pushes out the collet. The ease of use is also attractive, as only one tool is needed: a hammer.

Unexpectedly restrictive pull-up type bearing puller

Wheel bearings with increased friction loss due to poor lubrication or contamination by foreign matter must be replaced as soon as they are discovered. Bearing pullers are used to remove bearings press-fitted into wheel hubs, and well-known tools are those that pull up the chuck inserted into the inner ring. It is common to stand two feet on the bearing holder and pull up the chuck with a puller bolt inserted in the bridge section, but there are some limitations to successful handling. First of all, there must be a platform for the two feet to stand on outside of the bearing. A front wheel with a disc rotor seating surface is not much of a challenge, but a rear wheel with the sprocket carrier and wheel damper removed can be surprisingly unstable. The chuck has a slight protrusion on the tip of the chuck to catch the tapered portion of the inner ring of the bearing. The puller bolt may not come out even after the puller bolt is wound up. Furthermore, if the foothold is unstable, the puller itself may not stabilize until some tension is applied to the puller bolt, making it laborious to handle two wrenches. Even the bearing puller, which is considered a standard item, has unexpected limitations.

If pulling doesn't work, try pushing type bearing remover

An example of a bearing remover that includes multiple collets and a set of screwdrivers. The tip of the rod called a screwdriver is wedge-shaped like a flathead screwdriver, and two are set because the width of the groove varies depending on the size of the collet (not the Motion Pro tool shown in the text).

The collet is inserted into the inner ring of the bearing with a minus groove dug into it. The sizes are 10, 12, 15, 17, 20, 22, and 25 mm, which are common for wheel bearings, and these sizes are the same for the Motion Pro products sold on Webike.

The pull-up type chuck features a simple mechanism whereby a push bolt is screwed into the center to expand it to adhere to the inner ring, but a wedge is driven into the minus groove to expand it outward.

A push-pull type bearing remover is useful in situations where a pull-out type bearing puller is difficult to use. In this type, a collet with a flat slot is inserted into the inner ring of the bearing, and a special rod called a screwdriver inserted from the opposite side of the wheel hub is used to tap the collet. The tip of the screwdriver is wedge-shaped like a flathead screwdriver, and by striking into the negative groove of the collet, the collet itself is pressed strongly against the inner ring of the bearing. As mentioned earlier, a pull-up type bearing puller may slip out if the protrusion on the tip of the chuck is not applied to the bearing properly, but there is no such protrusion on the tip of the collet of the bearing remover. Nevertheless, a pressed-in bearing can still come out because the more the screwdriver is hit, the greater the pressure that the collet exerts to adhere to the inner ring. In the pull-out type bearing puller, the push bolt that extends the chuck and the puller bolt that pulls up the chuck work separately, so it is possible to wind up the puller bolt even when the adhesion between the bearing inner ring and the chuck is insufficient, which results in chuck slippage trouble. On the other hand, the push-pull type bearing remover uses a single screwdriver to perform the crimping of the collet and the push-pull operation, so the more the screwdriver is hit with a hammer, the more tightly the collet adheres to the inner ring, making it difficult for the collet to slip and the bearing to slip out. It does not require a stable footing to stand two feet like the pull-out type and does not use two wrenches to tighten the puller bolt.

The fact that only through holes can be used is a weakness, but the simplicity of the work process is appealing

To use, the collet is inserted into the bearing, and a screwdriver is inserted from the opposite side of the wheel and hammered on the end to match the groove. If the collet is struck before the wedge-shaped tip is firmly seated in the groove (not extended), the collet will slip out, so it is best to place the wheel on the floor under the collet until the driver is seated, then raise the wheel and strike the driver after the collet has adhered to the bearing inner ring.

When the bearing is pushed out of the wheel, it looks like this and can be easily disassembled and the bearing pulled out by twisting the collet or screwdriver along the groove. The main attraction is that it is simpler to use than a bearing puller, which requires two wrenches to tighten up the chuck and push bolt in the manner of a double nut, and then pull it up after setting it on the frame.

A push-pull type bearing remover may seem to have all the advantages, but it has a definite weak point: it cannot be used on bearings that are built into the stop hole. While the wheel bearing, which is always press-fitted into the through-hole because the axle shaft passes through it, has many advantages, the bearing in the stop hole used in the engine crankcase can only be pulled out with a pull-up type bearing puller. However, as explained above, the puller type is simpler to use, and it is harder to fail even if you are not familiar with handling the tool. While the pull-out type bearing puller does not function with a chuck alone and always requires a frame with two legs, the bearing remover requires only a collet and a screwdriver, so if you know the bearing size, you only need to buy a collet, which is actually an advantage in terms of cost. The Webike shopping site sells Motion Pro bearing removers for about ¥2,000 per size. Some Sunday mechanics have made their own push-out type bearing removers by diverting concrete anchors, but the remover designed for bearings has a collet outer diameter that fits the bearing inner diameter exactly, and the more you tap a wedge into the minus groove = mortise, the more it expands and you can feel a strong adhesion to the inner ring The more you tap the wedge into the minus groove = mortise, the more it expands and you can feel it strongly adhere to the inner ring. When you have to buy some tools for bearing replacement, you should consider not only a pull-up type bearing puller but also a push-out type.

POINT

  • Point 1・There are two types of special tools used for removing wheel bearings: pull-up type bearing pullers and push-out type bearing removers.
  • Point 2・Push-out type cannot be used for bearings installed in stop holes, but is ideal for wheel bearings installed in through-holes
  • .

  • Point 3 - Because a wedge-shaped screwdriver is tapped into the collet's mortise, the more it is hit with a hammer, the more strongly it adheres to the bearing's inner ring and can be extracted securely.

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