Wheel Bearing Extractor group purchase

[rj scotty]

http://www.s2forum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=17470&highlight=wheel+bearing

Have a look a Graham's wheel bearing extractor in this thread.

A friend of my Fathers can make this device for approx £200. This is a little expensive for me to justify buying alone when wheel bearings can last circa 100,000 miles but there is no denying this device is a god send to anybody wishing to replace their wheel bearings as they can be done with hubs on the car and thus not affect alignment
It would seem sensible to get the front extractor made as these are the most prone to wear out and are the same on coupe and avant. If 10 people could put £20 each in and the extractor can belong to the forum and get passed around as needed.

Just a thought, all opinions welcome

cheers

rich

[Ruffiano]

that seems like a very simple device to make, how could that cost so much?

[rj scotty]

He has to buy the materials.

Like I say this is just any idea if somebody has the materials and resources to make this device cheaper by all means do it and get the price down

cheers

rich

[AndyP]

I made one of these last year but never got round to using it. To be honest I was not convinced it would work. I know it did for Graham, but when I looked at the size of the bearing I just thought, no way!
I'll have a look for it this weekend, if I can find all the parts I'll gladly donate it to the forum.

[rj scotty]

My dads mate says the materials speced in Graham's drawings should be fine i.e they will load 20 tonnes BUT they would have to be hardened this is where part of the cost comes in.

Like I say I'm sure somebody could do it cheaper

(edited because it looked like I died half way thorough writing a post, damned export!)

[twoqu]

Not to discourage you as there are some similiar tools out there. Seems to more popular in the USA, look at Sir B90 and the Hubshark! Klann makes a nice one with the ability to upgrade to a hydraulic ram rather than a mechanical spindle.
My own experiences of a very nicely made German wheel bearing tool were disappointing. We experimented on a C4 A6 front strut. The M20X1.5 spindle or nut sha****elf almost immediately when attemping to remove the bearing. Not sure what happened but as the design of my one enabled the user to operate it only from the front using a built in thrust bearing to take the load, we were left with the nut stuck halfway up the 300mm spindle. I think that it could have done with more mechanical advantage as the nut was @30mm. It certaintly doesen't look under engineered.
There are some nasty Sealey type kits as well out there which are just bits of tubing of various diameters, some stepped wasters and a large bolt.
In the end we got a rather agrigultural looking press frame and a 20 ton bottle jack. We used the various bits from the wheel bearing kit to aid removal, so it wasn't a complete waste of money!
I would like to try this again but was having trouble locating a equivelent spindle or HT set screw (M20X1.5X300mm!). I would then try and get the nut remanufactured up to say 60mm of thread. Strangely i was looking at some pullers at the Weekend to see what the spindle size was for the load. On a 10t one it was M20 for a 20t one it was M27!
To be honest the kit I have is probably a bit too difficult to make cost effectively but I can post some pics if anyone wants to reverse engineer.

[Graham]

Long time no see, i have changed one front and one rear with this method now--The rear one was 4 year ago and no problems so far. There is an even easier method if you hire an enerpac model RCH202 gives 20 tonne and using an engineered washer to account for the 26.7mm hole through the bore (40mmOD 20mmID 12mm thick) pulls the bearings out easier than any garage press as the load can never slip and is captive by the suspension. All in all the front took 2.5 hrs to do.