Main bearing removal

[Hugh Conway]

Anyone have any good tips on remove/replace the original sleeve type main bearings on a 6/1?
I foolishly thought that if I removed the aligning screw on the housing top, the bearing would be a light drive removal.......not so.
A few hours of careful and arduous cutting got one of the bearings out, and i am not looking forward to the removal of the other one.
There's gotta be an easier way!
And replacing?
BTW, the oil thrower rings were staked onto the crank and were also a PITA to remove without damaging them too much.
Thanks for any advice.
Cheers,
Hugh

[Hugh Conway]

Well, looks like I will have to answer my own question. They had to be replaced.

The obvious way to remove the sleeve type main bearings is to use a big hydraulic press.......maybe I could have used my log splitter.........

Since we are out here in back of beyond, with no machine shop is at hand, had to come up with something out of what is lying around the workshop.
 For a field expedient method, I used:
Lots of patience.
A long bit of 1 inch threaded rod.
Timber washers and nuts.
PVC sleeve inside the bearings to prevent damage and centre the threaded rod.
Various bits of pipe and spacers.
A big crescent wrench and a long pipe for leverage.
Much sweat and a few colourful words.

I did get the other one out in a safer manner than the first method (cutting), and got them both back into and seated into the carriers.
There are surely other, and probably easier ways to do this, but no-one was forthcoming with advice.

My advice would be to use a press if at all possible, this was not a fun job!
Cheers,
Hugh

[M61hops]

Congratulations!  When I was in high school I had a job doing construction work.  One of the first pieces of advice my boss gave me was when I asked him how do do a little framing job.  He said "the best way to do the job is the way that gets it done".  That advice still helps me get started sometimes  !               Leland

[tyssniffen]

I know this is a really old thread and obviously you would have done it already but is there any chance that there are some photos or some diagrams or some videos about this somewhere?

[38ac]

Take your new bearings to a machine shop and tell them you want a driver machined that is .010" smaller than the O.D. of the bearing and pilots it it's bore.  You also should have an installer that pilots on the bore and has  flange to match the bearing thrust surface.
Or, you can drive the old ones out with a punch and hope you don't ding the housings and then smack them back in with a hammer and block of wood and hope you don't screw up your new bearings. 
Sometimes the bearings are very tight in the housings and sometimes not.