Thanks for the replies
swarfy let me go through your good long note
Jon.. You just need a big hammer and a drift. The outer races are a press fit, and require a bit of a smack. Removing the wheel bearings usually involves destroying the bearing shell cover, so bear this in mind.
I got a hub without the dust cover, just the felt ring behind it, i already have a dust cover which incidentally fits the plunger hub but not the later hub.
The hub has a bearing retaining ring on each side. From memory these are identical and have a left hand thread, so first try the one within the splined end, undo with a bar across the slots, or in a bad case, two folks hammering in unison on opposite sides of the retainer slot will break the seal.
These were pretty tight but the best way i ve found is to let soak with penetrating oil, put two fairly big screwdrivers into the slots and use a tyre lever or similar to turn the ring off. one was so tight on i had to tap the ring around with a small punch until it loosened
The next problem is removing the bearing shell cover without damage. It just pushes on, but can be difficult to remove, so try a bit of heat, but once this is off, along with a felt washer and a small spacer, the bearing retainer is revealed. This will unscrew as before.
see as before
The splined drive side bearing sits on a locating ring which positions this bearing positively within the hub. The other bearing outer race floats, so without the retaining rings, in theory pushing this bearing into the hub will push the drive side bearing out.
The spline side bearing does indeed have a raised step behind it as you say, but tapping the timing side bearing through is not possible due to the rivet heads on the inside of the hub,.
With one bearing removed, the centre spacer will jiggle free, then the remaining bearing will knock out.
Assemble the hub with your new bearings, spacer and the drive side bearing retainer tightened, put the wheel into the frame and add the rear spindle, with all the spacers etc. Tighten the spindle as normal, check for free rotation. This will settle the other bearing. Remove the wheel and add the remaining retainer and the shell cover.
If getting access to the bearings is difficult, or they refuse to come out, try an expanding masonry wall bolt through the bearing centre or weld a bar across the inner race, they are scrap anyway, to allow purchase by the drift.
the expanding bolt is an idea and i had the same one myself, i will see if i can find something ready made but if not i was thinking about a pair of small levers with sharpened feet which would sit at the point where the bearing meets the inner spacer, hammering a rod between them would spread them and force the feet to open up the gap and give some purchase on the bearing inner to knock them out
Early Swing Arm and Plunger hubs have the same bearings, so I am wondering why your other wheel did not fit.
well they are sort of the same but different, and i would like to start with the right bits to at leas thave a chance of it all fitting together,
These bearings are not adjustable and even when brand new will have some play at the rim, a characteristic often not understood by a youthful vehicle tester. The original bearings were open, these days sealed bearings are a better choice.
got to have a bit of play at the rim ! At least BSA saw fit to have two bearings in the hub as well as one in the brake plate, HD's VL model had one in the brake plate and one in the hub so when the splines wore out the wheel had an ich of play at the rim ! (dont worry said the tester at Happy Hamrax, they all do that) but a terrible system. Thanks for the advice and I ll let you know how i do
best
JW
