Unit bearing tips and tricks

[mrblaine]

This subject comes up on a forum at least once a week. If we had a tips and tricks forum, this would be a good one to put in it.

The problem- Rust, as in the bearing is rusted into the knuckle. Here's a pic to give an idea of the amount of rust on this front axle.



That should give you an idea of just how siezed these unit bearings were.

So, being that I am a big fan of leverage, I decided to use it to my advantage.



Kat grabbed me a 2 3/4" grade 8 bolt and I rotated the axle until the stubshaft ears were parallel to the ground, had her turn the wheel to the right and then back to start wedging against the bolt.



You can see the unit bearing starting to work it's way out of the knuckle.

Turn back to release the bolt and move it to the other side.



Practically effortless way to pop siezed up unitbearings out of the knuckle.