On Mon, 23 Oct 1995, Jeff Monks wrote:
> Does anyone have any experience in replacing rear wheel bearings on a
> Spitfire? According to my Haynes manual, a special tool or hydraulic
> extractor is required to get the hub off. Since I'm not likely to find
> Special Tool S4221A anytime soon, I was wondering if anyone had any
> experience using something slightly more accessible, such as a gear
> puller or some such device. Anyone?
Back in my wilder days, I attempted (and ultimately succeeded) to replace
the rear bearings on the rear axles of my '70 Spit - without the
special tool, contrary to the advice given in that same Haynes manual. I
pulled out my trusty Craftsman gear puller and proceeded to break it. I
took it back for free replacement (which they did!), and broke the
replacement (which they also replaced, although with a long look...).
Somewhat daunted, I took my axles to a local British car shop.
Luckily, I called first because when I told one of the mechanics what I
wanted to do, he made me come after regular business hours - his
technique for separating the hubs from the axles was _not_ sanctioned by
his employer! I think he was impressed with my tenacity ("you broke TWO
gear pullers?") and wanted to help me out.
I showed up at the agreed upon time and he took me to the back of the shop
where he had a BF-gearpuller (the kind with holes rather than hooks on the
2 arms), a BF-hammer (10lb sledge), and a BF-vice waiting. His technique
was to bolt up the gear puller to the studs on the hub, crank this huge
puller to the point I though the wheel studs would snap, mount the axle
in the vice, and make like John Henry with the hammer on the screw of the
gear puller.
The first one came apart pretty easily after 5 or 6 blows. "This may be
easier than I thought", he said. However the second one met his
expectations and more. After a couple of minutes of wild pounding, he
had to break down and fire up the torch before it finally gave. When the
hub finally parted, it sounded exactly like something had broken (a
possibility he had specifically warned me about) and I thought I'd be
shopping for a new axle. Parts and tools flew across the shop in a
spectacular fashion. Thankfully the Aston Martin they were working on
was well away from the vice. Surprizingly, once we rounded up all the
parts and tools, we found that nothing was broken, the hubs hadn't
bent, and we had in fact succeeded.
All that was left for me to do was some file work (!) on the mushroomed
axles, and put it all back together with new bearings.
Don't try this at home, kids!
Mike
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