[Vwdiesel] Front wheel Bearings.

[James Hansen]

> Actually, it's worth talking about getting that inner race off.  The
> first time, I cut it off with the torch.

Actually, if you are good at welding, put a bead on a few inches of the
inside of the inner race.  As the weld cools, it shrinks the race enough so
that it will just drop out. Least destructive method, anyway. Torch is okay,
but you have to have some skill with that, and the risk of distortion is
greater.



> actually resharpened the chisel several times.

Never, ever, ever, ever hit a hardened piece of steel with another hardened
piece of steel, unless you are wearing safety glasses, a face shield,
gloves, and leather welding jacket or some other anti flak device.  Needle
sharp flakes of hot hard steel will fly off of the race usually, and embed
themselves in any flesh they encounter.  There are a lot of one eye blind
mechanics that have learned this the hard way.  Among other things, I'm also
a medical x-ray tech. You would be surprised at the number of people that
have steel embedded in their forearms and faces from this very thing. Eyes
too, unfortunately.



 Foolishly, I thought
> that if I just "hit it hard enough" the race would crack.  No dice.

That's cause the Rc of the chisel is less than the race, unless you have a
blacksmith-made chisel specific for the task.  Energy is mostly lost in
destructing the chisel tip.  If you need to crack a race, take the glass
approach.  Get in there with your dremel tool, and scribe a line or two with
a cutoff wheel first.  One good blow from a hard enough chisel, and you have
pieces.

>
> ps: Chisel method is not recommended unless you have body protection.
> I wear safety glasses.  That day I had cuts on my face from 0.5mm
> sized pieces of chisel which flew off with each hammer hit.  I didn't
> notice the chunks hitting my forehead.  But when they hit the vascular
> mucosa of the lips, the blood FLOWS!
>

Ah, yes.  I scroll down and read further.  Good.  It's surprising how much
you depend on binocular vision.  I've been patched for a couple weeks from
spark encounters of my own stupidity.  Running on one really sucks for depth
perception.

-James
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