front wheel bearing

mark777 · May 23, 2005

Jason,

I agree with Gbirky. It is probably surface rust on the shaft and mating surfaces. There will be some (moderate) risk punching the shaft out of the housing....it you have it pressed out or you drive it out yourself, the risk is still there. Once it starts to travel, the assembly should come apart without a problem.

Mark

kenmac · May 23, 2005

You may have already tried this, but try soaking it in something like WD-40 for a few days.

Jason_MI · May 26, 2005

Well, I took it to my mechanic who put the whole assembly in a press. When he got to about 10 tons he said 'ah....there's something else going on here', and then cut the top bearing and race with a torch. Then a deadblow hammer to seperate the two parts. Basically, it was filled with mud from years of non-maintenance, and it was the rust on everything holding it together. Looking at it, he didn't think there was any real damage, but all the bearings and such have to be replaced.

I'll take the rest of it apart carefully, make my list, and order TWO of everything, since I know I'll be doing the other side next!

And thanks again for all of your help. I really do appreciate it.

And hopefully the pics I've attached are a 'little' smaller and easier to see.

Jason_MI · May 26, 2005

here's the other pic of the upper hub....

gbirky · May 26, 2005

It looks ALOT like the front axle from my YM1110D. I attached a photo of one of the parts after dis-assembly. This is what they call the "tower gear" which rotates on the vertical shaft. You are looking at the top of the gear which still has the inner race of the top bearing on it. The inside is supposed to have needle bearings above a spacer (you can see the spacer as a worn down shoulder inside there). That surface will never take a needle bearing, and neither would the vertical shaft which was just as bad. So I took the shafts and gears to a machine shop and had the shafts turned down to a smooth surface, and had them turn the gears on a lathe to get the spacer out. Then I had them press a delrin bushing inside the gear and turn the inside to fit on the shaft. It works very well, and I would suggest you do the same based on the looks of your axle parts.

Jason_MI · May 31, 2005

You know, I'm back in the same place I started from. I appreciate all the help. I got all the shaft (and gears out). Everything is dirty/worn, and I need new bearings and spacers (had to cut them off), but the rest of it looks good. But that stupid lower hub is right back where it was before; someone mentioned earlier that there's a 'circular clip' that has to be removed on the inside.......okay, how?

From the picture, you can see that the casting continues INSIDE the hub, almost all the way to the gear (the gear just loosely rides on the splined shaft; so no problem there. There ain't ANYTHING that I can get to. Is this just a press fit (or rusted on), do you think? I mean, the first thing I tried, way back when, was to put some punches into the sides of the cover/hub and tried to drive this thing off; and that didn't work.

Where do we go from here?