I am an old man and I was taught the grease trick back in the 70's. BUT!! That slide hammer is absolutely BRILLIANT!!! ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ five stars for you Sir!! Art from Ohio
@@hetrodoxlysonov-wh9oo Or he could just buy a new machine and scrap the old one. That would be REAL CLEVER wouldn't it? For some reason you thought of a solution that nobody else did - I wonder why????
The ball bearing puller design was a great idea, I'll keep that one filed away. In this case, it would have taken way too much time! Anytime I have a blind race, I lay a couple of weld beads around the ID of the race which shrinks it slightly allowing it to be pulled out by hand (be careful not to 'cock' it in the bore!). It works on any style of race: deep groove ball, tapered, angular contact, etc. I cover the bore in anti-spatter compound to protect it and any other critical surfaces from weld splatter. I've been a CNC machine tech. for close to 20 years and changed out more bearings than I can count. I've had maybe 60% success rate with grease, it either leaks thru the balls or just blows out the center race and balls.
I'm trying to wrap my head around why this works... the ID isn't what's stuck and wouldn't that just cause the inner ring to expand then cool down again? I believe you, I'm just trying to figure it out... EDIT: I'm an idiot... you're talking about after you've removed the inside of the bearing, right?
@@schwuziNahh, bread is terrible for this... I eat it before the bearing gets pulled. Wet paper towels have a much higher chance of getting to the job. 😊
Neat concept, but it's only good for one size and model of bearing. Next time just weld two hot passes inside the bearing or race. The weld will shrink and contract it so that it falls out on its own when you flip it over. Takes no time at all.
It's not just a neat concept. It's what mechanics have done for a century or so on every kind of blind hole bushing, bearing or whatever. Works on all sizes.
When I first started working on cars and trucks I had an older mechanic teach me how to do this. I ve used this method several times and it works every time.
This is the best kind of video because we dont have some boring talking head that only uses this as a format for an excuse to talk, talk, make lame jokes, bore us to death, etc. Instead we have visual proof of what really works that is engaging.
I love these types of videos. There's always someone that has a different technique to solve a problem. I've only used the weld to shrink method and its always worked. Mind you I'm a backyarder with my own motorcycles, so i haven't needed to use different techniques often. Love your work mate, i really do!
I learned the grease method as an apprentice T&D maker in the 70's I worked for a mfg of printing presses and we had to rebuild and remove a lot of old bearings this way. Great slide hammer idea,
Old tricks never die! Used that, since my early days in 70:ies. The "old" guys told me that, when I stood there, scratching my head, completely lost. Works only if you have a closed hole, like shown. As said, old but good! from a Finn in Diaspora
Tip for the grease trick. If you're having trouble with it leaking through the balls (if the bearing is unsealed) then tear up a bunch of little, tiny bits of paper and mix it with the grease. As others have said welding the outer race out is the way to go. Neat puller design though, I'll have to keep it in mind.
Very good idea, if you want you can also tack welding the outer ring slightly in two or three points and it will shrunk ready to be pulled out easily by hand.
Hi guys. It seems everyone has missed the simple method. Apply a few blobs of weld to the inside of the bearing. Wait 1 minute, the welds will shrink. As the welds are attached to the bearing, the bearing will also shrink. The bearing will fall out. You can use this method on engine cylinder liners. Ore small line of weld. The liner will fall out. Done it thousands of times.
This is a good way of doing it. It works as long it hasn’t got a hole through or an axle inside. There’s special pullers you can use that grips the inner race of the bearing. That if the bearing has got an axle inside. You will be able to pull it out anyway.
2:48 Saftey squints on ! 🤣 I’ve seen the first technique done with bread ! The second technique could’ve been done by welding that bar and using a slide hammer. No need for that fancy home made tool. 👍
Actually bought a blind hole bearing puller set (Matco tools) decades ago. Working at a motorcycle dealership - time is money! Still like the video very much, the ingenuity is excellent!
Unsealed bearing just run a bead of weld around inside of outer race,cool down turn over,race will fall out. This will be the case for a taper roller bearing.
I've successfully used damp paper towels in lieu of grease. The water is the hydraulic fluid and the towels just hold it in place. Worked fine and a lot less messy (unless that's your goal). To remove stubborn crankshaft dowels pins I've drilled through them lengthwise with a 1/8" drill bit, then used kite string soaked in oil.
Every mechanic on Earth knows that trick. Pretty sure AvE was the first to show it off online. I've gotten blind bearings out with my lunch sandwich before out in the field.
Had exactly the outer race problem last week - I just welded two vertical struts to it with a nut across them to attach a slide hammer. Same as yours really but quicker to do
Ha! You are my kind of "good friend". Getting the last out of your gloves, using a wrist pin for a slide hammer and tinkering together cool tools. We are not dissimilar ;)
Good job! On your design of the puller. That's exactly what I was thinking about too? Or another way to do it, is to weld the remaining bearing case to the section of the puller. And slide hammer it out? Because it's no longer any good? You can grind off the welds, and start over with a fresh pin? That works too?
Great idea. But you can apply the same grease method with the outer race, you just need a large diameter piston. Also, when using the grease method, if you give it a sharp blow the first time rather than tap it, the bearing comes out in one hit. And there are special bearing pullers for bearings that have the problem you illustrate. They have two keyed prongs that go inbetween the races (assuming you still have the inner race) and twist to lock. The prongs are like balls with a flats on opposite sides so they can squeeze inbetween the races. Once turned 90 degrees, they lock in. You can also put back some of the balls to keep the keys from moving about. Expensive, but they do exist.
Now that is a very nice way of pulling that race. But as you had access to a welder in making this tool, it would have been quicker and easier to weld the race and shrink it and remove it that way. Grease trick is a classic and one that I have used countless times.
I like the way you drilled the holes and tapped threads into it to accept a bolt? It's gonna be a lot better for the threaded part to weld another nut at the top of the hole to give additional strength to the threads , or the threads will strip out easily because of not enough thread surface area to support the bolt
The best process for doing that is actually potato. We used to use it for pulling the pilot bearings out of the crankshaft of big diesel engines. Potato doesn’t squish through little holes like grease does.
About half a year ago I had to pull out a 350 mm diameter ring that had been accidentally pressed crookedly with a force of 4000 tons (yes the number of zeros is correct). The two shifts before me could not handle it, 20 minutes of welding and quick cooling with a wet rag were enough. It was enough to pry it out slightly (the hole was through).
I feel like there are probably easier and less time consuming methods, but this is awesome, especially if you have more bearings off the same diameter to pull.
When I was a kid an old mechanic showed me how to do this but he used a slice of bread not grease. Just keep pushing more bread into the bearing and it will push the bearing completely from the hole
Great. I just need several sizes of metal stock, small rebar, a drill press, tap, grinder, welder, drill press and bender. And of course somewhere to put it all. 😂
If you've just drilled a hole with a drill press, use the press as a guide for the tap without moving the workpiece. That way you won't have the wonky tap we see here.
Its a long way to tipperary ;-) but with success 😂; the ball bushing was welded 180 to the first Plan 😅 and then cutted again to slip in , but good idea and Job tahts clear
Using grease to push a bearing out was very old school when I learned it back in the sixties. Used it many times to replace pilot bearings when replacing the clutch in a stick shift car. All you needed was a socket with a snug fit and an extension stuck in the wrong end of the socket. Fill the bearing with grease like shown in the video and use your socket as a driver. I would guess that this grease method has been around as long as there has been machines with bearings. 150 years? 200 years? More?
@@alro2434 Those sixties and older vehicles I used to work on had simple bronze bushings for the pilot bearings. The "tool" we used was nothing more than an input shaft for the transmission in question. (We had a supply of all the input shafts we ever needed.) It fit the hole nice and tight and worked great. Grease the hole, shove the shaft in, and whack it. Makes no difference the size of the bushing, grease does not compress.
my mechanic Pal puts a small bead of weld around the inside of the bearing (after protecting the hole from contaminants) as the weld cools the bearing shrinks and lets go :)
I’ve used the grease hydraulic method before. I learned that years ago from some other old mechanic at the time. Can’t recall who. When the bearings fail and you only have a raceway, I’ve resorted to several not so nice , and sometimes destructive measures. When you have time and the will, but no money, you can find some creative ways to fix things. Look at any poor west India video. Those people amaze me at their abilty to do things without any regard for safety.
I have done the same thing with bread on pilot bushings when changing out clutches it works great. Never done it in a big bearing. Generally I would weld a couple passes around the inside of the bearing after gutting the inner piece and they pretty much fall out.
