VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND EARLIER 1937-1945 Advice needed front wheel bearing removal

My 40 has a tapered roller inner wheel bearing that is stuck, unable to remove by hand. Next step is using a puller to get it off and I expect this will likely spoil the bearing and hope not to damage the spindle. Any tips or best practices on getting off stuck inner wheel bearings? Thanks.

Why do you want to remove the bearing? If just for lurication I would squeez grease into the bearing and leave well enough alone.

Good question. Removed drum to fix a minor brake hardware issue....shoe hold down pin broke....when removing drum realized inner wheel bearing stuck fast to spindle which is not right. Thought about just reassemble as is but just didn't feel right about not addressing a known problem. I worry about the bearing is so stuck, if left alone could it lead to other problems down the road and what is the underlying problem of it being so stuck in the first place. All that said, there was no indication of a bearing issue prior to taking the drum off, just figured it wasn't right so it should be fixed to avoid future possibly worse issue. Gene, more thoughts?

What ever you do try to get numbers on bearing first. You could have a smaller 1940 spindle or a larger 1941-1948 replacement.
I can not think of a way to remove the bearing with out damaging it and with out actual seeing it.

I agree with Gene on all 3 points.

Unless you are having problems I would not try to remove the inner cone. Someone installed it as part of a conversion to tapered roller bearings. Those kits try to use stock off-the-shelf bearings so the fit on the spindle is not optimized.

Unless you have a split bearing remover that can get into the space between the back side of the inner race of the cone and the shoulder on the spindle you will not be able to remove the bearing without damaging it. If you use a jaw type puller and pull on the steel retainer you will probably distort it.

As Gene suggested, just pack new grease between the rollers and the inner race.

Understood and I agree that addressing this situation one should plan on adding a new inner bearing. One thing I failed to mention that also is a worry, with the grease seal now on the spindle behind the bearing, I wonder if the grease seal will seat correctly back in the hub to control the grease from seeping out into the brake area.

Thanks for that piece of the puzzle.

I think you are saying that the seal pulled out of the hub and stayed on the spindle.

That would be a concern. I agree that getting the outside diameter of the seal to properly seat in the hub will be very difficult.

If that is the situation then I encourage you to replace the seal. I think that you could remove the bearing without damage if you use a split bearing remover. I expect that you will have to completely strip the brakes off of the backing plate so the puller plates can fit far enough in so they catch the space between the inner race and the shoulder on the spindle.

After you have the bearing removed spend time polishing the area where the inner race fits to make a slip fit. Use the old shoestring and fine wet sandpaper with oil trick to polish it.

Then you can grease the inner race, fit it into the cup, and install the seal into the hub. Then it should slip onto the spindle like a regular bearing. Just remember that the adjustment procedure for tapered roller bearings is different than ball bearings.

Rusty, could you expand on how the tapered roller bearing adjustment procedure differs from the ball bearing procedure?

Typically you do not preload tapered roller bearings on a front axle spindle. There should be a very small amount of endplay (.001" to no more than .005").

The procedure in the Chevy shop manual applies preload to the ball bearings. That is required to set the load path between the inner and outer races through the balls.

I am sure there will be many opinions about this. I am speaking based on my experience and knowledge.