I am replacing my steering bearings with the All Balls 22-1020 tapered set. I have seated the upper race and am having trouble with the lower. I have seated it flush with the cast frame using the Harbor Freight driver set, but the bottom is not up against the stop. I have tried to seat it several times with each time placing the race in the freezer for a half hour before trying again.
Can I leave the race where it is and try to pull it up by tightening the whole assembly together? Will I damage both bearings if I try this method?
What it I bought a long bolt with a nut to pass through both Harbor Freight seating dies and tightened them together (without the bearings in place) to seat the bottom one. Think that could work?
What it I bought a long bolt with a nut to pass through both Harbor Freight seating dies and tightened them together (without the bearings in place) to seat the bottom one. Think that could work?
I was going to suggest the same thing. Park Tools makes such a component but you can improvise one with the fore mentioned goodies and/or with some large sockets.
What it I bought a long bolt with a nut to pass through both Harbor Freight seating dies and tightened them together (without the bearings in place) to seat the bottom one. Think that could work?
I did same sort of thing with bits in the garage. Crude but it worked.
Can I leave the race where it is and try to pull it up by tightening the whole assembly together? Will I damage both bearings if I try this method?
I wouldn't try it. You should be able to drive it up into place with not that much effort. Make sure you haven't gotten something behind the race that is keeping it from seating. If you do, and you use the bearings to try and seat the bearing, you run the risk of ruining your bearings. Use a drift or bearing press, that's what they're made for.
It's possible you cocked the bearing at some point and raised a ridge of metal that won't allow the bearing to seat. Check out the bearing area very closely. Use your fingernail, or some such thing to make sure the bore is completely smooth.
Well, it has been two days of fussing with this with no joy so I am going to step back and try again in a couple of days. I am wondering if I should purchase another All Balls set to see if the lower race might be the problem.
Here is some close ups of the top race in place (those marks are grease smears) and the condition of the lower race seating area. I do not understand how the top went in after 20 minutes of fiddling with the lower still not in after 2 days.
Here is a pic of the homemade "race seater" I cobbled together. It is a 10" hex bolt passing through two pieces of the Harbor Freight set mentioned earlier. I figured this was safer than using the actual assembly parts from the bike itself. But no matter if I use this tool or the hammer method I cannot get this thing to seat. It ALWAYS twists crooked when starting (meaning a mm or more difference) and does not get further than that inner lip.
Luckily, I used a long PVC pipe and the old lower race to seat the tapered bottom bearing onto the steering shaft. So all that is left is the frame race. Grrrrr.....
It's possible you cocked the bearing at some point and raised a ridge of metal that won't allow the bearing to seat. Check out the bearing area very closely. Use your fingernail, or some such thing to make sure the bore is completely smooth.
There is a groove (not a ridge) within that bearing surface halfway up. However, I do not think that the bearing is reaching that mark before it stops.
If there's a groove in the seating area, there's also a ridge where the material from that groove went. The third picture from the top doesn't look good at all. It looks like some material is pushed up and created a ridge. That's bad. The only way around that is to get in there with a scraping tool, like the sharp edge of a file and scrape that ridge out of there. Not sandpaper, or emery paper since you don't want to remove any material except what that ridge consists of.
That's one of the reasons I always start a bearing with a hammer and drift until I know it is going straight. Then I might finish it with a press if I have access to one. It's very easy to get a bearing started crooked using a press like the one you have.
If there's a groove in the seating area, there's also a ridge where the material from that groove went. The third picture from the top doesn't look good at all. It looks like some material is pushed up and created a ridge. That's bad. The only way around that is to get in there with a scraping tool, like the sharp edge of a file and scrape that ridge out of there. Not sandpaper, or emery paper since you don't want to remove any material except what that ridge consists of.
That's one of the reasons I always start a bearing with a hammer and drift until I know it is going straight. Then I might finish it with a press if I have access to one. It's very easy to get a bearing started crooked using a press like the one you have.
Thank you.
I actually used the bearing drift with mallet first for a while. It was not until I was not making any headway that I tried with the press.
I purchased another set of bearings and am using the second race from that set. I will try to feel and remove any ridges from that gouge.
It would be so much easier if we could flip the bike over! In really stubborn applications (I ran in to this on some trailer hubs), in addition to putting the race in the freezer, a heat gun on the frame might make it just easy enough to drive it home.
Clean the bearing seat and bearing race OD with a #2 India stone - very similar to a sharpening stone. Tool and Dye and/or Mold Making Tool supplier will have a wide variety of stone shapes to choose from. The stone will take any ridge of metal raised as well as will remove any high spots from the diameter. This is all done by hand so it would take a number of hours to remove any appreciable material from the diameter. Also check the bearing race exterior diameter for a burr as well.
Ensuring that both surfaces are smooth and free of raised burrs and then using freezer and heat gun get the two pieces as far apart in temperature as possible and providing the the bearing OD is sized correctly, the pieces will assemble with the minimum of force.
It is advisable to use a piece of material (aluminum or other soft architectural metal) that will span both sides of the race and gently tap the centre to ensure the race begins entering the head diameter squarely. Think jeweler not railroad tie.
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