Call me a victim, whatever. Replacing the shock on the KLR (3rd one), and cleaning up the corrosion in the suspension pivot with a little manual wire brush and some WD40. Then a few needles fell out of one of the bearings. Guess it got a bit too rusted. I was just gonna add a healthy dose of grease and reassemble, but now I have to replace needle bearings. Once the needles are out, there is basically no "meat" to the part- just a thin candy shell. I tried to lightly tap it out from the opposite side and it promptly broke. How can I get these out? I need the quickest, cheapest, and easiest method. I'm supposed to leave Friday for a ride. Freeze? Heat? Both? Soak? Thanks
Try heating it up with a propane torch and tapping it out again. If that does not work, try using an awl or small chisel and tapping it between the bearing shell and housing IF your housing is basically soft, then it can collapse inward and be removed.
No No No. Don't start pounding on it or your gonna make things worse. Go to the tool box and find a socket that is just smaller than the bearing shell and one that's bigger. Off to the bench vise or press if you have one and press the smaller socker through the suspension link and drive the bearing out the other side. Put the inner race in the bearing to keep the shell from collapsing. Yes you will probably have to double up on the smaller sockets or use a deep socket to get the bearing shell all the way through the linkage. On assembly with new bearings the bearing goes into the freezer for a few hours/over night and the link is warmed with a torch and it's back to the press/vise for installation.
This is assuming there isn't a "stop" or shoulder in between the two needle bearings. If so, then they have to be removed from the inside-out.
+1! If you beat on it it will collapse and you will probably end up with burrs inside the shell or worse! A brake caliper compressor is another nice option if you have one. A little heat with some liquid wrench goes a long way to get a nice smooth squeeze.
I'd start looking for a small bearing puller (i.e. pilot bearing puller) with the ""arm hooks" that face "outwards", or are reversible. You can then insert the hooks into the pivot hole and grab the back edges of the bearing and crank it out (after a liberal soaking in penetrating oil followed by heating). Try Autozone or such where you can borrow it... Kinda like this but with the arm hooks that are reversed to grab outwards ... http://www.google.com/products/catalog?hl=en&expIds=25567,26644,27007,27015&sugexp=ldymls&xhr=t&q=small+bearing+puller&cp=11&wrapid=tljp1286735401265120&um=1&ie=UTF-8&cid=12338088724751227193&ei=LwayTMvpHsL98Abpio2iCQ&sa=X&oi=product_catalog_result&ct=result&resnum=3&sqi=2&ved=0CDEQ8wIwAg# DirtyDog, I looked in my tools and my pilot bearing puller (which would work) was too large to fit , or else I'd let you borrow it since were somewhat close - good luck.
No, you can't pull from the flanges of a needle bearing. As a previous poster mentioned, a proper sized socket and press them out. Be sure to not bitch up the aluminum on the other side. These needle bearings are a real weak spot on dirt bikes as they get filled with dirt and water and the end is near. Grease fittings would be the answer.
Success! Got them out after some frustration... funny story though. After multible lube applications and some time in the freezer, I took it back in the garage for an experimental press. Got out the C-clamp and the sockets. I was able to budge one bearing inward about 1mm, which told me that there was indeed no shoulder. So I took the whole kit over to our new rent house which has a bench vise. Got to work pressing it out. Was fighting the vice and having to get creative because the jaws wouldn't open wide enough for the deep-well socket to accept the pressed-out end. Was using a 24" cheater bar and some antique penetrant stuff. I had a propane bottle torch, but couldn't find the nozzle, so no heat was applied. Anyhow, had one almost peeking out when I BROKE THE VICE. Can you see the crack? Shit, now what? I remembered seeing another vice squirreled away on a shelf. Since it wasn't mounted, I couldn't get any leverage on the breaker bar. So I clamped the working vice in the jaws of the broken vice. It was a loose fit, but it got the job done. Again, I was fighting with jaw span to get the proper sockets in play. Eventually, I got the first bearing out and finished the job with a sledge, since my socket was a very tight fit.
Durned cheap vices. Mount that vice to the bench, buy your rents a shop press. Damned handy, and most can push a lot more weight, and since they open wide, its not so difficult to support the part so as to allow the peices to be pressed out.
In this case U should have used the oven. Aluminum expands/shrinks more than iron, so cooling it down just made it more tight.
Keepin' my head above water... Funny you should be dealing with this stuff. I'm about to do the same to the new-to-me CRF450R. Thankfully when my buddy bought this bike years ago (it's a 2002) he paid me to strip the bike and rebuild it like it was mine, so all the suspension linkage bearings were lubed with a quality waterproof grease from the start. IMNSHO, that helps with the longevity and serviceability considering how chintzy the factories are with grease.