Front Bearing Race Removal

[George J.]

I have met bubba and he is me. This weekend I was installing new wheel bearings on the front of my '65 and thought I had done enough research to perform the job correctly, but no. While removing the races, I used a punch to contact the small shelf of the race that is visible from the four notches in the hub from the back side. Well, the punch came in contact with the hub surface and nicked it in a few places.
These kicks were very small and probably 0.1% of the surface area of the race seat, so after making sure there were no burrs I was able to install the new race with no trouble. I looked back at the old threads and noticed that someone had advised using a brass drift. That makes more sense, now, and I'll use that on the other side, which I haven't done, yet. I just wanted to make sure this was posted, so that others don't use punches, screw drivers, etc. for this. Of course, maybe everyone else already knew this, but in case there are others like me....
I was able to purchase an installation tool, and would highly recommend that for installing. The races went in snugly and smoothly using it.

George

[Philip P.]

Re: Front Bearing Race Removal

Well it is good to know that "bubba" is alive and well, remember he kept these cars together before nothing but correct parts were an issue.
Thanks for the information
Phil

[George J.]

Re: Front Bearing Race Removal

An update. It appears that it is not that easy to find brass drifts, or punhes without ordering them and spending some dollars. I had a hardware store cut some 3/16" stock to 8" lengths and used those. It worked perfectly and cost $6.
The bearings that came out were Hyatt and the new ones put in were Timken, and Made in the USA.

George

[Ken A.]

Re: Front Bearing Race Removal

Flip over the old race & use to install new race.

[Joe L.]

Re: Front Bearing Race Removal

An update. It appears that it is not that easy to find brass drifts, or punhes without ordering them and spending some dollars. I had a hardware store cut some 3/16" stock to 8" lengths and used those. It worked perfectly and cost $6.
The bearings that came out were Hyatt and the new ones put in were Timken, and Made in the USA.

George

George------


I'm surprised that you could drive out a wheel bearing race with a 3/16" OD brass rod. That just does not seem stout enough to me.

[George J.]

Re: Front Bearing Race Removal

Joe,
It took patience, and working my way around, but it came out evenly. The new one went in snug, with a half dozen good hits of the bearing race driver. Everything felt like I would have expected it to. Most of the brass punches, or drifts I looked at ordering were not much bigger at the end than that.

George