Taper rolling bearing install help

T

timtune

Well-known member
Site Supporter
I'm about to install new bearing in the steering neck on my old Honda. I usually freeze the outer races and drive them in with a specially turned wooden drift.
To install the inner race on the stem I want to heat it in the oven before tapping it into place.
What temp is good/safe?
 
Also would you freeze the stem too?
 
bitzz said:
225-250 F
NEVER, as in not once, hit a bearing you want to use.
Press bearings on.
NO HAMMERS.
Click to expand...
Exactly. I use a length of threaded rod and a stack of washers the right size.
 
My lazy suggestion, go to a shop (auto or moto) and ask them if they can press the new stem bearing race on for you. Takes absolutely zero time and effort with a shop press. Offer them $20 or some coffee for their time.

For getting the stem race off, cut a vertical notch in it and use a chisel to split it, will slide right off and can be used to press the new race on.
 
bitzz said:
225-250 F
NEVER, as in not once, hit a bearing you want to use.
Press bearings on.
NO HAMMERS.
Click to expand...
I was just watching a video of a guy assembling a trabant motor and he was installing the crank bearings with a hammer. I cried a little inside.
 
Trabants might be an exception, the factory tool was probably a hammer
 
What no Trabant love??

Somewhere I have a pic from when we did a day tour of East Berlin when you had to pass Checkpoint Charlie (1988 just before the wall fell). The picture shows a large parking lot with nothing but Trabbys. Sedans and wagons in the three colours. Grey, beige and putty I think.
 
Wingboy said:
Exactly. I use a length of threaded rod and a stack of washers the right size.
Click to expand...
3/8" rod OK? Just the ready rod or do you freeze em too?
 
bitzz said:
225-250 F
NEVER, as in not once, hit a bearing you want to use.
Press bearings on.
NO HAMMERS.
Click to expand...
Is it ok to slap them with an open hand like Sean Connery says?
 
GreyGhost said:
3/8 seems big enough to me. I do what I can to reduce forces. Freeze/oven makes everything easier and less likely for something to cock or gall.
Click to expand...
Yes. 3/8 is good. Heat and cold with lube makes it a drop in job.
 
timtune said:
What no Trabant love??

Somewhere I have a pic from when we did a day tour of East Berlin when you had to pass Checkpoint Charlie (1988 just before the wall fell). The picture shows a large parking lot with nothing but Trabbys. Sedans and wagons in the three colours. Grey, beige and putty I think.
Click to expand...
Does it look like this? I was in Berlin the night the wall fell.GHRP5547[1].JPG
 
Last edited:
Raceways are hardened -- very hard. Unless you're a hamfisted luddite you can tap a bearing or race in with a brass hammer. If the bearing or race bottoms out below the lip, or it's going over a stem, cut a relief groove into the old race you removed and use it as a tool to drive and seat the new bearing.

Freezing bearings that go into a bore helps (as cold as you can go), conversely heating bearing to 250F or a race to 500F makes it easier to install over over a stem.
 
So I stopped a friends who had a press and we pressed the bearin g onto the stem. Like Mike said driving the hardened outer races into the top and bottom of the stem should be fine. I've done it before. That said I'm likely going to use the threaded rod this go round.
 
Mad Mike said:
Does it look like this? I was in Berlin the night the wall fell.View attachment 51397
Click to expand...
Looks about right. Over three months of backpacking Europe and crossing numerous borders that was the most intimidating. Also one of the few multi coloured passport stamps we got (harder to forge)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom