Guys, need a little advice/help... I picked up this old Halibrand 201 a while back. Doing disassembly, I'm trying to get the bearings out of the rear cover. The unit sat nose-up for years out in the elements, so there's a lot of corrosion on/in the bearings, to the point I barely got the cover off! So now, can someone advise me on the best way to get these bearings out??
Clean the grease and grime off the topside of the bearings, then wire brush the rust off the top edge of the outer race. Use your wire welder and run a bead around the inside edge of the outer race as far in as you can. This will shrink the race and hopefully make it smaller and easier to pull out. Might still need a puller with thin arms to get into the bearing center.
If you can find a used toaster oven (should be cheap @ Goodwill), place the cover (bearings down) and blocked up on both ends. Set the control @ 275 degrees, and the bearings should fall out. If not remove with a heavy glove, and slap the cover on a wood block, that should do the trick. Reverse the procedure to install the new bearings.
Something that will help in some situations like this is EvapoRust. I use it on things like Strombergs that are held together by rusty hardware so that the rust doesn't cut up the soft metal castings as screws and shafts are removed. I would really insist on that brand because I have proven for myself that it won't eat anything other than rust even in very long exposure. Degrease reasonably first so you don't contaminate the chemical and let it soak...it will eat away any rust it can touch without doing anything to the aluminum. It has some ability to get into tight places, not great but better than any acids I have tried...and of course the acids would destroy anything zinc or aluminum.
On the oven...if there is the slightest speck of old 90 or 140 in there, your house and your food will smell like a dead whale that washed up three weeks ago. Not just long enough to annoy your wife, forever! definitely use a junk toaster oven, outside on the longest cord you own.
Marty, You just gave away the trade secret. Always have a wooden block to slap stuff against! I used the wife's BRAND NEW oven to disassemble my first Quckchange over 40 years ago. I have still that oven in my shop today. An expensive lesson.
Time for the "blue wrench" I have done these several times and on both aluminum and mag parts and always just light up the torch and run it around the area just out side of the bearing, get it up to 3-400 deg and bang it against a 2x4 and they will fall out. Let the cover cool and it will be just fine. Also when you put in new bearings do the same thing, heat the bearing bores with the torch, I use the rose bud head, and drop the new bearing in. DO NOT press the new bearings into a cold cover plate or for that matter into a cold case when you are changing the input shaft bearings. You will ruin the case. Rex
I put the cover bearing side down about 8 inches off the floor in front of my shop torpedo heater. When the cover is the right temperature, the bearings will fall out. maybe a little tap on the backside.... Good luck, -Abone.
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