Re: 4k wheel bearings...

[Jeremy R King <kingjer@eng.auburn.edu>]

All of you so far have misunderstood Mr. Goggin's question.  I'm sure 
he's quite capable of pressing the wheel bearing out of the upright.  If 
you've ever pressed the hub/spindle (the splined piece that accepts the 
half-shaft and the 4 lug bolts from the wheel, and is held in place by 
the axle nut) out of the bearing and looked at the inside lip of the 
circular area that has the 4 lug holes, you know what he is referring to.  
The race is the sort-of-washer-like scouped groove that the balls in the 
outside of the wheel bearing roll up against.  This ring-like piece has two 
flat edges on it with a little daylight between the back of the race 
and the inside edge of the disc part of the hub (this is so you can 
insert a pair of puller hooks underneath and pull the thing off the hub).  

If anyone has the answer, I'd be equally interested.  We're (group of 
engineering students in SAE here at Auburn) are using VW rabbit 
"spindles" (we call 'em hubs) on the rear of our formula race car.  We're 
making our own uprights and a housing for the stock wheel bearing so we 
can use the splined stock hub and half shaft.  We would like to use the 
same uprights and custom wheel bearing housing in the front, but are 
going to make our own hub (spindle) since we don't need a drive 
axle/splines and the stock hub is so hefty (we figure we can cut at least 
a pound by making our own.  And then we can make a custom mount on the 
spindle for the motorcycle brake discs we're using).  

I say all that to say that, in order for us to be able to use the stock 
bearing, we need to use that race on our custom wheel hub.  Instead of 
buying new ones (if you even can), we'd much rather pull some off of one 
of my 3 parts cars in South Carolina.  I've been meaning to try to get 
one off of the two hubs we already have off the rabbit.  I think that now 
I'll wait to learn the trick before taking a chunk out of my nose or 
something.

Jeremy R. King
1986 VW Quantum GL5
Audi at Heart

On Sun, 12 Nov 1995 AUDIDUDI@delphi.com wrote:

> I give up: For almost a week, I've (unsuccessfully) tried to pull the inner
> bearing race off of the spindle using various gear pullers ... none of them
> have worked.  They all slip out of the little notches before the race moves
> and even using a giant C-clamp to hold the arms in place hasn't worked.
> 
> At this point, the only practical alternative I can see is cutting them off
> with a die-grinder but I'm concerned about nicking the spindles ... putting
> them in a lathe to cut them off isn't an option nor is buying a new pair of
> spindles.  
> 
> Anyone have a better idea?
>    
>                _               _              
>               / l       l o   l  \       l o   AudiDudi@delphi.com
>              /__l l l / l l = l  l l l / l l   Jeffrey Goggin
>             /   l l_l \_l l   l__/ l_l \_l l   Scottsdale, Arizona
>