****The advice mentioned below Is probably not the 'right' way to do it
but it worked for me so what the hell****
You wrote:
>
>
>Okay, we're all sick of the Spitfire rear axle bearings thread, but I
>have one more question.
>
>Yesterday, I managed to get the car up, wheel off, and even managed to
get the hub off with very little difficulty (thanks to Dave Clark's
rather ingenious device),
GLOATING ;)
but once that was all apart, I couldn't get the
>#&#^@#%*&#@ bearing out of the trunnion! I tried until it got dark,
then reassembled the bastard by flashlight (miracle it worked this
morning!) So,I call upon the collected wisdom of the group: Any tips
for getting the ball race out? I pushed the trunnion up the axle
enough to get about 1/8"
Jeff,
Note: the following prodedures are probably not reccomended for the
weak of heart but they worked for me.
First of all, you should remove the whole axel, I disconnected the
axel from the differential and the trunion from the rear vertical link.
If you do remove the whole thing you might as well replace the
U-joints, Almost as much fun as the rest!
BTW I didn't have any problems with the first (bad) side, it all just
kinda fell in my hand and on the ground.
second, I drove the trunnion back towards the U-joint a couple of
inches then so that it would slide back and forth (kinda like a slide
hammer). Then I put a 2x4 on the concrete floor and basically used the
trunion to push the bearing off the axel by two methods:
I placed the end of the axel on the block, and beat the sh*t out of
the trunnion (I can hear moans around the world), note that it is
probably a good Idea to remove the grease fitting before going to town.
When using the hammer I was carefull to keep all blows square the the
suface of the trunion and I didn't single out one area on the trunion.
then when I got worn out from all that I placed the trunion back over
the bearing and raised the whole axel and slammed the end of the axel
against the wood block. I held the top of the axel for balance and the
trunion to do most of the work.
Getting the whole bearing exposed by driving the trunion back is not
that difficult. Once you get that far I believe there are bearing
pullers you gan get to do the job. Since it was late and I was
frustrated the above mentioned proccess worked fine for me with no
damage. In retrospect, If I had to do it all over I would have fabbed
somthing to make it a little easier.
Oh, When you drive the bearing on make sure not to drive it on to far
(like I did) or you will have to pull it back. Not fun when you think
about what you may be doing to the new bearing!
Good Luck
David
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