Designing a different mousetrap - Final Drive Bearing Tool for 1150's
- Thread starter bcostell
- Start date
I have a standard 3 legged puller that I'm sure would work if I ground the feet down a bit.
I used it as is once I'd got the bearing away from the crown wheel a bit with hammer and bolster. The bearing wasn't even on massively tight, it's just awkward to drive it off. The puller took it off easily.
I used it as is once I'd got the bearing away from the crown wheel a bit with hammer and bolster. The bearing wasn't even on massively tight, it's just awkward to drive it off. The puller took it off easily.
I'd be interested in seeing that, have you found bearings that are slim enough to put back to back, normally AC bearings are quite wide.
For doing the job at home the bearing blank is a good idea as it saves heating etc to get the shimming.
I'm not sure about the feelers etc, I've always found them to be a bit hit and miss, different people will get different readings. I'd always use a dial gauge on the bench, on the road I'd probably just put a new bearing in and check it out later.
I'd be very surprised at any significant variation in the axial play on branded bearings, they're all made to certain specs with a very close tolerance.
bcostell
Registered user
Normally AC bearings are, as you allude, mounted in pairs. I'm using a single bearing and working with the the taper roller bearing on the other end of the shaft as the second part of my 'pair'. It's not the designed configuration for the AC bearing, but I think it's less of a kludge than BMW using a regular ball bearing and assembling with pre-load. Now, these bearing are pretty expensive, depending on where you shop they can be in the $350-500 range each. I was pretty fortunate in coming across a small supply for 'somewhat' less than that. These particular bearing have a 25 degree angular contact area and have the same nominal dimension to the stock item - and of course they are designed for applications where there is an axial load - unlike the stock item. So, a bunch of theory that says they 'should' work. We'll see. So far the only evidence I've found of them being used for this application was a guy on HUB:
http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hubb/bmw-tech/1150gs-rear-wheel-bearing-failures-38600
http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hubb/bmw-tech/1150gs-rear-wheel-bearing-failures-38600
That HU post certainly makes for interesting reading.
We once fitted a single AC bearing on a large vertical seawater pump that was prone to bearing failures on its 'normal' style top bearing, the weight of the shaft and impeller were enough to overload the bearing axially. That certainly cured the problem, the weight of the parts were enough to keep the AC bearing loaded up without needing a second bearing to restrain the shaft.
Let us know how it goes....
Craig
We once fitted a single AC bearing on a large vertical seawater pump that was prone to bearing failures on its 'normal' style top bearing, the weight of the shaft and impeller were enough to overload the bearing axially. That certainly cured the problem, the weight of the parts were enough to keep the AC bearing loaded up without needing a second bearing to restrain the shaft.
Let us know how it goes....
Craig
Won't the bearing be manufactured to very fine tolerance ? And could the shims be purely to take up any " slack" in the original FD casting differences ?
In other words once the shims are fitted at the factory to shim the case to the bearing, and not the bearing to the case.
If they only fail every 50k what's the big deal ? Just carry a spare and bang it in for the next 50k using the same shim set up.
In other words once the shims are fitted at the factory to shim the case to the bearing, and not the bearing to the case.
If they only fail every 50k what's the big deal ? Just carry a spare and bang it in for the next 50k using the same shim set up.
