deacon mark

I built myself a set of BDOP diy wheels 2 years ago. They are fine about 11000 miles no issues. If I wanted to replace the bearings on the rear seems to require bearing press tool kit. Well that is $160 to buy and then the bearings so best to simply replace the wheel. My stupid question is can cartridge bearings be replaced without the fancy tool kit. Can I press them out and in with a homemade set up. I should know this but frankly I never have needed to do this. I do not need to know but thinking ahead.

jimc101

Have you looked at a Wheels Manufacturing economy press, and then getting the specific adaptor you need for your hub, it? A lot cheaper then the price you have given, Economy Bearing Press

Andrew R Stewart 

Of course many have replaced bearings (of any position) without specific tooling. But also many have damaged the new bearings, the seats and resulted in far less then ideal performance.


The key is knowing how to apply the insertion forces to the bearing so that the rolling surfaces are not effected. Proper presses isolate the insertion forces to the bearing parts (inner or outer races) so that no force is transmitted through the rolling elements. If you don't know how to do this with makeshift washers/sockets and such then get the right tool. Andy.

AlexCyclistRoch

I've had good luck (so far) with finding a socket of the correct size, then using a mallet to push the bearing in. Of course, this only works well with bearings that have some 'substance' to them, and on interference fits that are not too tight. Once in a while, I have resorted to GENTLY applying heat, to make the seating diameter a bit wider for installation.

Bike Gremlin

How do you pop the old bearings out? Does that require special tools, in order not to damage the hubs?

andr0id

Getting bearing out is easier, you can push the inner or outer race straight out as long as you're not mashing the soft hub body on anything.

Putting bearing in is the tricky part as Andy said. Never push an inner race to seat an outer race and never push an outer to seat an inner is the rule.

Phreon

Get a can of "canned air", turn it upside down and douse the bearing to be installed with it. You can get the bearings down to -30F or more, which believe it or not, shrinks them just enough to make a difference when installing.

It's also a great way to immobilize/kill stink bugs w/o creating the stink.

sch

The bearings are on the axle, so extrude the axle either with a length of all thread some washers and a nut with the appropriate socket
on the other side, or just tap on the end of axle with a soft mallet or piece of wood. Once one side is out you can put two bits of wood
underneath the extruded bearing now loose from the housing and tap in the other direction to unseat the remaining bearing. Go back
to the first bearing and tap the other way to knock the bearing off the axle. A bearing press is just a fancy nut with handles and a
longer piece of all thread with a set of spacers of various sizes to match the bearings on a typical bike. You basically need three spacers:
one the size of the inner race to set or remove the axle, one the size of the outer race to set the bearing in the housing and one larger
than the outer race to allow the bearing to be pressed out of the housing. You just reverse the settings depending removal versus
replacement. It does take a bit of care to set the bearing in the housing and good presses with have a spacer just larger than the
outer diameter with an inside step down to the all thread to facilitate this but careful eyeball as you tighten the all thread on an
improvised press will do just as well. It is best to put the first replacement bearing back on the axle before installing in the hub.
You can google a bunch of vids that should flesh out the idea on youtube.

ThermionicScott 

Also good for installing valve seats!