Originally Posted By: Quest
@ Trav,
All the methods that you and many other experienced mechs sound. Fact is, there's no fast and true rule RE: how to deal with this situation, while some of them are definitely valid, some of the remarks are just a bit silly (not from you seasoned guys of course).
Given the time constraints (most of these jobs are paid by the hour), it's best to just hit it with a torch with cutoff tip. I would pretty much do the same thing too (although I would try to first get a smaller die grinder to cut as deep of a groove on the bearing race first before heating it up and then quickly dunk it in a bucket of used ATF (which I have in the corner of my garage all the time) in hopes that the sudden thermal shock would (a) crack the bearing race due to contraction; and if not, at least (b) the ATF would seep into the rusty cavity between the hub and the race part, which then I would try to press it out and see if it budge.
repeat that process a few more times (heat and then dunk), and then try striking the race with a cold chisel....The hardest job I had with similar situation was a car from Dakota, took me 3 dunks and a very, very deep groove before the bearing race cracked and was able to break free afterwards.
Mechs are usually very smart ones which can pretty much improvise to get the job done. Some of the tricks used would literally scare the amateurs away, but so long as the methodology sound, I can't see why it cannot be done.
Q.
p.s. 50t press would be good to have also in this case, but that does not guarantee that the rust-fused bearing race would budge at all, if not soaked sufficiently with lube first..... (my subjective experience).
All good inputs, thanks to you, Eric and others for putting their ideas.
I have knocked the bearings out leaving just the outer race and cut almost all the way through with a sawsall before throwing it in the press or splitting it with a chisel. Rust is a nightmare.