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Headstock bearings

Submitted by paul_gooch on Wed, 31/07/2013
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Just given up trying to remove old headstock bearings from a 1955 single downtube frame. I tried bashing, levering, heating, cooling and swearing.

Finally resorted to running a bead of MIG weld around it in the hope that distortion would shift it, but no joy.

Anyone got a resoloution?

Paul

Submitted by bryon_harvey on Wed, 31/07/2013

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I changed mine out just last month...

Top came out very easy for me, but I had to beat the life out of the bottom.I used a combo of heat, punches, pipe, Newcastle Brown, andcursing.

It eventually surrendered to reason (both the Newcastle and races)

B

Submitted by john_hawden on Thu, 01/08/2013

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Dont want to teach grandma to suck eggs...but.. theres a lip on the inside of the headstock if I remember, make sure youre not hitting against this. Otherwise I agree with the above, would recommend Timothy Taylors though :)

Submitted by simon_amos on Thu, 01/08/2013

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Hi Paul,

Had a similar problem with a BMW in Germany,and the local mechanicresolved the problem by migwelding scrap across the cups,which gives you something to knock against,also the heat build up will help too, and try to replace with tapered bearings if you can, I hope this helps.

cheers, Alan H.

Submitted by colin_sharpe on Fri, 02/08/2013

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Previously alan_houghton wrote:

Hi Paul,

Had a similar problem with a BMW in Germany,and the local mechanicresolved the problem by migwelding scrap across the cups,which gives you something to knock against,also the heat build up will help too, and try to replace with tapered bearings if you can, I hope this helps.

cheers, Alan H.

I like the welding scrap over the races, but taper rollers will not be good if the original shrouds are to be used, since they will seem too short due to the thicker bearings. The original bearings seem to have hung in there for over 50 years so just replace with stock bearings.

Colin.

Submitted by gordon_johnston on Fri, 02/08/2013

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I ended up reverting to standard bearings after trying taper rollers. The Taper rollers sit proud of the headstock and despite making a neat dust cover they ended up getting water in and rusting - something that doesn't happen with the standard setup. Gordon.

Submitted by paul_gooch on Tue, 13/08/2013

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I ended up have them removed at a local machine shop, but for any other members who have similar problems, this is how they removed them.

They made up a very thick "washer" of the same diameter as the inside of the headstock tube, they noticed that the bearing races have a slightly smaller inner diameter than this, but not enough to get a decent wack with a drift.

Then they flattened two sides of the washer, so that it would fit through the bearing races lengthways, but still jam against them when aligned in the same plane. (clever stuff!)

Then they used a hydraulic press to force one of the buggers out, the remaining one was easier access.

I have to hand it to them, they earned their £20.

Paul

 


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