bearing carrier service

[DAVE14]

Its time for me to change my bearings again its a Rad double row bearing carrier I dont wanna warm it up with a torch , but I keep hearing stuff about putting them in the oven to warm them up & they should tap out easy any truth to that or should I be grinding & pickin at it as usual ?

[deathman53]

heres what you do. Get the new bearings and put them in the freezer, for atleast 1-2 hours. pry out the seals of the carrier, use a torch(mapp gas works best) and heat the center of the carrier, wait untill the grease starts to boil, then the bearings will tap out with the slightest of taps. Flip it around and tap out the over side. While its still hot, take the bearings out of the freezer and they should fall right in, first one side, center tube and then the other side. You will need to hold the bearings in place for a few minutes. Its really easy to do, just gotta wear pot holders for when the carrier is hot. When you put in the seals, First wait till everything is cool, grease the seals and the carrier, work it in, and get a pvc pipe coupling that just fits the seals and tap it in the rest of the way with that. I have done 4 carriers so far, I wasn't sure of the first one, untill I tried it myself and found out how easy it was.

[DAVE14]

thanks for the tip I can see the heat helping but I would of never guessed the freezer would contract the bearings in any way to make them fit better , cant wait to try it because I really hate this job normally Ide change them every season bad or not if it goes well before the next failure 30 miles from home worried my axle will look like a half chewed caramel