No point, just sorta insta-bookmarking another tool for this tool geek to buy next time he wants to extract motorcycle wheel bearings.
-- Badtux the Tool Geek Penguin
Kraut Cup Trial '13
10 years ago
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
About Me
- BadTux
- I am a black and white and yellow multicolored penguin making his way as best he can in a world of monochromic monkeys.
4 comments:
We didn't use to have all that fancy shit, so I've always just used a straight punch. Just be very careful to tap around the outer race.
On customers' bikes the rest of the bearing usually falls out in pieces.
A socket of slightly less than the diameter of the outer race will do to tap them back in. Since I paid for the socket I use a brass hammer.
I know it's best to always use the correct tool, but back when I got started that was the maechanic's ingenuity.
Check out these front & rear wheel stands.
Yep, last time I had to do a bearing I used a straight punch from the backside also. It was a PITA. For tapping them back in, I do the socket thing too, that's always easy 'nuff (specially if you stuck the bearing in the freezer overnight and run it right down to the wheel before it can heat back up), but extracting the old bearing was always a PITA. According to a guy who used this tool on his DL650 bearings, it just worked. No hassles. I like that.
As for your customer's bearings falling out in pieces, LOL! I check my bearings on the Mule and give'em some grease every time I swap tires and if they started getting rough they'd be out of there so fast...
Problem I see with those front and rear wheel stands is, how do you change your fork oil with that setup, hmm? These modern forks don't seem to have drain holes at the bottom! At least with the centerstand on my Weestrom I can pile a hundred pounds of weight into the topbox and pop the front tire up off the ground. Same problem when it comes to lubing the rear suspension linkage BTW. If you take the swingarms off to lube up their bearings good and well, something which lifts the bike up by the swingarm spools isn't doin' ya much good! These new bikes that don't have a frame goin' under the engine are cool and all, but I gotta think that there's no substitute for a real lift-point under the belly of your bike...
You can warm the hubs. Aluminum expands at about twice the rate of steel. Helps bust the dissimilar metals 'loctite' too. A little knock'erloose helps as well.
I guess you could flip the bike upside down onto the handlebars to drain the fork oil. Kinda bush. Take the battery out and put a sandwich bag under the gas cap first. 8)
Can you suck the fork oil out through the top? Use a clear hose so you can see it comin'...
I think if i had to take the fork tubes out to drain the oil, I'd consider installing drain plugs for the next time.
I've taken the fork tubes off of my KLR before. Not much more work than changing the front tire. Just take off the front tire and brake caliper, take off the clamps holding the speedo cable and brake line to the fork lowers, hang the brake caliper from a bungee cord to the handlebars, loosen up the triple tree bolts and widen the gap with a screwdriver, and slide'em right on out. Helps to take the springs out first so you can compress the forks to more room to get'em out, but (shrug). Anyhow, this lets you wash out the innards of the fork much better than them being on the bike. The sludge I poured outta there when I bought the bike... the DPO apparently had never heard of the need to change fork oil, so I spent a lotta time pumping ATF through the things to clean'em out. Lot easier to do that when they're *off* the bike! Also found I had a cracked speedo cable at that same time (cracked where it went through the cable retainer on the lower fork leg, go figger), so it saved me a new speedo gear (when the cable seizes up, the speedo gear at the hub usually goes craptacular, and that's a heckuva lot more expensive than a $15 cable!).
Of course, the Mule has a skid plate to put a lift under...
Post a Comment