3 replies to this topic

[oldman]

Hi all,

Quick history, Its a 91 Cooper and its sat still for 3 years.

I stripped the front subframe and took the top arm apart it had some grease and rusty waterish
fulid in it, I left it to soak in diesel for 3 days and tonight went down to clean it.
Both bearings seem to be partly seized and the spindle is corroded along the center section
also the bearings seem to have left indents on the spindle,
the inside of the arm looks in poor condition aswell.
I know you can get a rebuild kit for the top arm but I am concerned about the arm its self.
If I do refurb the arms how do you get the bearings out?

Thanks in advance,

John

[bmcecosse]

You just have to bash them out with a steel rod and heavy hammer. Probably the old shaft will do as the 'steel rod'!

Edited by bmcecosse, 07 April 2010 - 07:58 PM.

[tommy13]

Providing the pivot pin has not worn through the outer casing of the bearings, there should be no problem reconditioning the arm.
Without a specialist bearing puller I have found the best way to remove the bearings is to take an M10 set screw about 60 mm long, put it into the bearing with the thread sticking outwards and the underside of the head level with the outer edge of the bearing shell and weld the bolt head to the bearing with 6 tacks. Allow to cool and place a socket over the the threads, put a nut on and tighten to draw the bearing into the socket. You can also use a slide hammer attached to the bolt to drift the bearing out. Main drawback of this method, apart from not having a welder, is accidentally welding the bearing to the arm.
I have read that others on here carefully grind through the outer casing lengthways with a Dremel type tool and then collapse the outer bearing shell inwards with a suitable drift.

[russ_1380]

Hi guys

thanks for the good advice. I've just done this job too and thought i'd share a technique that worked for me:


Firstly I used a dent puller (sliding hammer) with a hook shaped end. I ground the hook small enough so it would fit into the hole in the bearing.

I then mounted the whole arm in a vice, and beat it like hell with the slider. This is great if it gets the whole bearing out, but as in my case all it did was pull the outer section out, leaving the inner section stuck in the arm.

When this happens (as in my case), I hit the remains of the outer race of the bearing with a hammer and drift. This then collapsed the outer race and knocked all the needles out just leaving the inner race.

Next, I found an old bolt, just big enough to poke through the remains of the bearing. I then put two washers on the bolt and poked it through the opposite bearing. The idea is that the bolt goes right through and the washers just catch the inner of the bearing. You can then whack the end of the bolt wi a hammer and knock one bearing completely out.

All you are then left with is the inner half of the first bearing. Keep persevering with the slider and it should pop out.

If this doesn't work, a good tip on here that I tried, was to grind the bearing with a dremmel. All you need do is grind a small section, if you look closely you will see when you have ground through to the arm as there will be a 'cloud' shape shown up where the two different metals meet. Once this section is ground I went bak to the sliding hammer and wacked it out.


Hope this helps, although I would say by the time you've bought a refurb bearing kit, its not far off the price or buying refurbed arms! Ahhh hindsight!