Rake Niemeyer / Kuhn Rotary Rake Repair. Can't remove top casting. HELP

[Larcar]

We just purchase an older Niemeyer rotary rake rs-340 / rs-340D and are trying to replace the bearings on the main shaft. Everything seems to be in working order, but the bearings are sounding pretty rough. I have been helping my husband with this task, at least emotionally (LOL) and I wanted to reach out to you to see if any of you had the same problem. We have put a jack on it and chained it to the casting, tried to beat it out, we have flooded it with Kroil oil and it will not budge. Looking at the parts breakdown there is only a snap ring at the top which has been removed. We are a week into the soaking phase and it is still stuck. He has heated it also with no luck. Anyone with any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I am the one that wanted the rake so your help might get me out of the dog house. LOL

Thanks so much!!!

 

[flingwing1969]

Do you have a slide hammer style or other type of bearing puller? If so, you might consider trying to pull the gear off the axle, along with the bearing. But, you might damage the gear in doing so if the bearing is really tight.

Maybe you could stop trying to remove the bearing intact? If you have an air impact tool, fabricate a small diameter tool from an existing chisel and apply force to the inner race, above the spacer. The race should break with reasonable force as it is pretty hard and therefore fairly brittle. You might then be able to remove the pieces of the upper bearing, the spacer, and the gear and repeat the process on the lower bearing.

 

[flingwing1969]

This is a video of pulling a brake rotor with a traditional style puller. I would be hesitant to use an extension on your gear because I have broken these pullers before - instead, I would go until it was getting hard to turn with the ratchet handle, then stop, maybe give it a few taps with a hammer and let the Kroil work for a while while the bearing races are under tension, have a cuppa and come back and give it another turn or two as you feel comfortable.

Rotor Removal with a Puller HD - YouTube

This is how a slide hammer works to pull an axle, similar operation but uses impact forces.

How To Use A Slide Hammer - YouTube

 

[Larcar]

I appreciate your thoughts. I am not to the bearings yet. The top casting is the right angle drive and is fixed into position with a key. This casting houses the pinion gear and will have to be removed vertically off of the shaft in order to get to the ring gear where the bearings are. The key is in a blind key way from the top. Meaning I can barely see the key from the top I thought about grinding material out as to drill and tap the key and pull it but am afraid to remove that much material from the cast steel shaft also reducing the area for the snap ring to go into.