Pressing wheel bearings?

[Toaster Pilot]

Need to change front wheel bearings on a Seat Arosa - lead to believe I'll need a press for this which I have access to.

What do I use to actually press in/out the bearings? Big socket? Special tool(s)?

[Nighthawk]

Either

As long as the lump is of the correct size to press on the metal areas of the bearing and not the seal area you'll be ok. Usually the people with need for the press have a variety of lumps that get kept by the press for such occasions.

[Toaster Pilot]

What tools would normally be used if I were to buy something designed for it?

[G600]

Toaster Pilot said:

What tools would normally be used if I were to buy something designed for it?

A lathe and some aluminium bar but you'll probably have a socket you can use.

[alfan]

Freeze the bearing overnight if possible,and if fitting into a housing slightly heat ,press onto outer race of bearing with large socket or steel pipe completely even should do the job

[paintman]

I've always used big sockets or other handy circular objects - which includes tracks from old bearings.
I have one of the 10 ton ebay style presses (the bottle jack ones) & its surprisingly good. Makes short work of Land Rover bearings/bushes, the front suspension ball joints on my Sprinter van (which is what I bought it to do) & various wheel bearings.
What I will say is that its vital to drill & bolt the base of the bottle jack to the moving bar it sits on.

Edited by paintman on Tuesday 24th June 22:21

[226bhp]

If you've got an engineering company nearby get friendly with them and raid their skip or use somewhere like Mentalsupermarkets.
I do and have all manner of bar ends and bits of metal which I use. You can't always buy the stuff you need, you tend to just make it or gather it over the years.

[Mr2Mike]

Old bearing races can be useful for pressing bearings in. If you use the old bearing outer race to press the new one in then cut the race at one point so it will have minimal tension when pressed into the machined housing, otherwise you'll have problems getting it out.

Wheel bearings can be removed quite easily by running a bead of weld around the inside of the outer race. The weld contracts the race as it cools to the point that it will either fall out or at least require minimal persuasion.

[paintman]

^^^^^
Have used both methods & they work.

I've also used the bead of weld to remove inner tracks from stub axles. Some say it can't work, but it does. AIUI the heat expands the track & the weld limits its ability to shrink.

Edited by paintman on Friday 27th June 16:25

[jagracer]

Mr2Mike said:

Old bearing races can be useful for pressing bearings in. If you use the old bearing outer race to press the new one in then cut the race at one point so it will have minimal tension when pressed into the machined housing, otherwise you'll have problems getting it out.

Wheel bearings can be removed quite easily by running a bead of weld around the inside of the outer race. The weld contracts the race as it cools to the point that it will either fall out or at least require minimal persuasion.

These don't have a separate inner and outer race, there's a circlip holding the sealed bearing in place. The biggest problem will be separating the drive shaft from the hub. Once you get the hub off you should be able to press the old bearing out and hopefully the new one in with the aid of sockets that are just a bit smaller than the bearing. Sounds straightforward but it can go wrong in soooo many ways.