Miniature Inner Bearing Puller

[Jens]

I am facing a problem for which I don't see a solution.

 

I need to pull out a bearing that is stuck.
The inner diameter is 4mm.

 

So far I have searched everywhere but the smallest inner bearing puller I could find pulls only those with an inner diameter of 8mm.

 

Except for one that is only sold in the US and not shipping here:
https://reelspeed.tools/

Apart from that they are asking $200 for the cheapest  kit.

It is a bit too much for pulling just 4 bearings.

 

Does anybody has a good idea how I can pull those bearings out?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Mack1]

Hi. I'm going to assume it's a metal cover. Try putting it in the oven 200°c for 5-10  minutes or a heat gun then normally they will fall out on their own.

[Hell horn.]

Got a tiny flat blade screwdriver.  Hest it up. Bend the tip over to 90% then tap it under the bearing.  Moving it around the bearing hit by bit.  Will pop it out no trouble. Its how i do it with tiny tricky ones 

[.AJ.]

16 minutes ago, Mack1 said:

Hi. I'm going to assume it's a metal cover. Try putting it in the oven 200°c for 5-10  minutes or a heat gun then normally they will fall out on their own.

I had a Turtle Transmission in  my Baja and the only way to fit or remove the bearings was to warm it up 👍 

[Ninetiesbeard]

Looks like a portal cover for the trx4 in your sig, if metal put in the oven for a bit as others have suggested, or if not i find that you can put the shaft tip into the bearing and wiggle and it should pop free.

[CarlC]

Try Newton's third law, every force has an equal and opposite reactionary force thingy. Tap the rim of the housing, not to hard but repeatedly and the bearing should slowly raise out of the housing. Seriously, it does work.

[Jens]

1 hour ago, Ninetiesbeard said:

Looks like a portal cover for the trx4 in your sig, if metal put in the oven for a bit as others have suggested, or if not i find that you can put the shaft tip into the bearing and wiggle and it should pop free.

You are right.

It's a portal cover for TRX-4.

However mine is made of brass.

And I am not sure how bras will react to being heated up.

Which one expands more heated up: Stainless steel  or brass?

 

[Jens]

2 minutes ago, CarlC said:

Try Newton's third law, every force has an equal and opposite reactionary force thingy. Tap the rim of the housing, not to hard but repeatedly and the bearing should slowly raise out of the housing. Seriously, it does work.

Tried that already.

To be honest the brass housing was  not accurately made.

Meaning that I had to force the bearing in with a wooden block and a hammer.

Or better, It was perfectly made.....

 

That's why I see little chance even with the oven or Newton's law.

 

The idea of Hell horn using a bent screwdriver seems to have the best hope.

 

But to even bend the screwdriver I just had order a vice. 

So I have to wait a day...

 

If that brass housing would be available in the UK I would have just bought a new one.

They are not expensive and don't justify such a big effort.

But I can only get them    from China and I don't want  to wait another 2 months to continue with the car.

 

 

[CarlC]

@JensI use the weighted Fastrax ones, they are well make and available in the UK - just a bit more expensive than the Chinese ones

 

https://www.modelsport.co.uk/index.php?product_id=424517&gclid=Cj0KCQiAwMP9BRCzARIsAPWTJ_Eg-6E_bjv5dDHCSGLQJoKdKLmzTBHHswOZRxuFrG6XQVKGv1zWq14aAnGjEALw_wcB

[Jens]

4 minutes ago, CarlC said:

@JensI use the weighted Fastrax ones, they are well make and available in the UK - just a bit more expensive than the Chinese ones

 

https://www.modelsport.co.uk/index.php?product_id=424517&gclid=Cj0KCQiAwMP9BRCzARIsAPWTJ_Eg-6E_bjv5dDHCSGLQJoKdKLmzTBHHswOZRxuFrG6XQVKGv1zWq14aAnGjEALw_wcB

That might be a good solution.

I came across them many times, but from the look I always they were   an addon to the actual housing.

Now I had a closer look and they actually replace the   original housing.

It's just a different design. Arghh.

[Jens]

9 minutes ago, CarlC said:

@JensI use the weighted Fastrax ones, they are well make and available in the UK - just a bit more expensive than the Chinese ones

 

https://www.modelsport.co.uk/index.php?product_id=424517&gclid=Cj0KCQiAwMP9BRCzARIsAPWTJ_Eg-6E_bjv5dDHCSGLQJoKdKLmzTBHHswOZRxuFrG6XQVKGv1zWq14aAnGjEALw_wcB

Just had a look at the Fastrax site.

They also offer the same housing as mine:

https://www.fastrax-rc.com/index.php?_route_=fastrax-trx-4-brass-bk-portal-drive-housing-outer-f-r-2&search=trx-4 brass

Sadly out of stock.

[Jens]

@CarlC

Your idea of  of just getting a new set was good.

But because of a small detail it sadly won't work.

I have 3    screw holes on the front where the disc brakes are fitted.

And none of the  housings I found so far have it.

Back to square one. Need to get the bearings out or wait 2 months for  replacements.

And after the 11/11 sale at Aliexpress shipping will by VERY slow. It's always like that...

 

 

[CarlC]

@Jens That's a bit of a pain, but I bet the disc brakes look cool.

[Jens]

21 minutes ago, CarlC said:

@Jens That's a bit of a pain, but I bet the disc brakes look cool.

They really do.

Those are the ones I bought:

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005001709478079.html?spm=a2g0o.cart.0.0.453a3c00BOg0KU&mp=1

I looked at my old Ali purchases and the brass housing came in a set with the discs.

I will follow up now 3 options:

- Bending a screwdriver to pull them.

- Finding a reasonable priced 4mm inner bearings puller. So far Reelspeed is the only one  (overpriced).

- Ordering new from Ali with the EMS shipping option (7-15 days).

 

I just tried the oven method fearing that something goes wrong. But at the end nothing happened. Bearings also didn't come out.

Sorry @Mack1. Your idea was good, but sadly not in my case.

 

[Ninetiesbeard]

2 hours ago, Jens said:

You are right.

It's a portal cover for TRX-4.

However mine is made of brass.

And I am not sure how bras will react to being heated up.

Which one expands more heated up: Stainless steel  or brass?

 

Brass has a lower melting point at around 900c so no way the oven is ever going to hurt that. Not sure about expansion, although it looks like youve tried it and it didnt work. If you can find a way to hit the cover hard with something from the outside face, that might shock it loose. May need to be careful depending on how thin the material is there, im assuming its fairly beefy because they wanted them to be heavy. Ive seen people using bent screwdrivers before to great effect, theres also another awesome little tip you can try. If you get some grease, some kitchen towel, and something which fits in that inner bearing hole really tightly you can use the pressure of the grease to remove it. If you pack the grease in the hole where the shaft is supposed to sit with some kitchen towel, then take a shaft which fits tightly and hit it, you can create enough pressure that it will force the bearing out as the grease cant compress. Video link here, this might work;
 

 

[Jens]

10 minutes ago, Ninetiesbeard said:

Brass has a lower melting point at around 900c so no way the oven is ever going to hurt that. Not sure about expansion, although it looks like youve tried it and it didnt work. If you can find a way to hit the cover hard with something from the outside face, that might shock it loose. May need to be careful depending on how thin the material is there, im assuming its fairly beefy because they wanted them to be heavy. Ive seen people using bent screwdrivers before to great effect, theres also another awesome little tip you can try. If you get some grease, some kitchen towel, and something which fits in that inner bearing hole really tightly you can use the pressure of the grease to remove it. If you pack the grease in the hole where the shaft is supposed to sit with some kitchen towel, then take a shaft which fits tightly and hit it, you can create enough pressure that it will force the bearing out as the grease cant compress. Video link here, this might work;
 

 

WICKED!!!

Going straight to my workbench. See you later...

[Jens]

30 minutes ago, Jens said:

WICKED!!!

Going straight to my workbench. See you later...

Well.  It worked... partially.

What happened is that the pressure of the grease disintegrated    the bearing.

Inner ring and balls are out now.

Now I need to get the outer ring out.

My idea:

The original bearing has an outer  diameter of 10mm.

That means the outer ring should have an inner diameter of 8mm.

And I can get an inner bearing puller with 8mm.

Which I will order now.

A bearing puller is good future investment anyway.

 

[mch87]

always wondered if a drop in anchor would work in this situation...  The type you use in concrete....

 

My idea would be drop one the right size in, use a threaded bar with 2 nuts locked so that you have enough thread left on the end to get a slide hammer on and just slide hammer it out... I guess you could end up doing the same as what you've done by pulling the innards out though...

[Jens]

VIce and Inner Bearing Puller arrived today.

Thanks to  Prime. 🙂

 

And all the bearings are out now!!

THANK YOU for your help and advice. 👍👍👍.