Tip: Use Concrete Anchor Bolts To Pull Blind Bearings
By Chuck Cage
Long time TM reader Tracy writes: “Concrete anchor bolts are great for pulling blind bearings — for example, wheel bearings on a motorcycle. It’s hard to get a bearing puller behind these kinds of bearings since there’s usually a spacer pushed up tight against them. Instead, you can insert a concrete anchor like this into the bearing, expand it by tightening the nut, then using a drift from the opposite side of the wheel to tap it out along with the bearing.”
Tracy’s full of kick-ass tips like this, and he posted a dozen or so to the TM photo pool. Check out the pool for more.
Toolmonger’s Photo Pool [Flickr]
July 19th, 2007 at 10:23 am
That’s a neat idea. Thanks for the post!
July 19th, 2007 at 11:36 am
Brilliant!
I’d bet that adding a piece of angle iron and another nut on the bolt could turn it into an effective puller for removing blind bearings, like removing a clutch shaft pilot bearing from a crankshaft.
July 19th, 2007 at 11:57 am
I’ll bet these would work for getting the cartridge out of the common Delta faucets. I tried an el-cheapo cartridge puller and broke it then had to pay a plumber to fix the mess. This looks like a better solution.
July 21st, 2007 at 4:07 pm
There’s probably a number of different ways to use these as pullers. Keep in mind that it’s still quite possible to pull the bearing at an angle this way, and of course you should never try and reverse the process to install a bearing.
I’ve used it many times as I described, and have found it to be one of the fastest and easiest ways to pop out wheel bearings.
–TMIB
July 23rd, 2007 at 7:44 am
Blind hole bearing pullers are not that expensive, The proper tool makes the job easy, not to mention the time saved.
July 23rd, 2007 at 7:58 am
Really? Because the sets I’ve seen run from $100-$1000 depending on quality. If you’re going to be doing a lot of this, then I agree that a real set is probably a good investment. For the odd bearing or two though, the anchor bolt that costs $2 or so isn’t a bad option. It’s just as easy as the real bearing puller, and I haven’t been in a situation yet where a real puller set would have saved me more time.
Again, the main place I use these is on motorcycle wheels. Those are technically not a true blind bearing since there is access through the back of the bearing hole. It’s just a situation where a traditional claw-type puller won’t work as there is no room to get the arms of a puller behind the inner race.
–TMIB